7T 

JC  178   .V2  C66  1892  v. 2 
Conway,  Moncure  Daniel,  1832 
-1907. 

The  life  of  Thomas  Paine 


Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


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FROM  THE  SEAL  AT  LEWES 

PROBABLE  AGE,  36 


THE 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 


WITH  A  HISTORY  OF  HIS  LITERARY,  POLITICAL 
AND  RELIGIOUS  CAREER  IN  AMERICA 
FRANCE,  AND  ENGLAND 


MONCURE  DANIEL 'CONWAY 

author  of  "  omitted  chapters  of  history  disclosed  in  the  life  and  papers  of 
edmund  randolph,"  "george  washington  and  mount  vernon," 
"Washington's  'rules  of  civility,'"  etc. 


TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED  A  SKETCH  OF  PAINE 
BY  WILLIAM  COBBETT 

(hitherto  unpublished) 


VOL.  II. 


G.  p.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

27  west  twenty-third  street  24  BEDFORD  STREET,  STRAND 

SC^e  fmickerbockEr  ^ress 
1892 


Copyright,  i8g2 

BV 

MONCURE  DANIEL  CONWAY 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 
By  G.  p.  Putnam's  Sons 


EJectrotyped,  Printed,  and  Bound  by 

tCbe  Tftnicfecrbocfeer  press,  •new  igorlj 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Son? 


INSCRJBED 
TO 

GEORGE  HOADLY 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  II. 


CHAPTKR  PAGE 

I. — "Kill  the  King,  but  not  the  Man  "  .       .  i 

II. — An  Outlawed  English  Ambassador    .       .  17 

III.  — Revolution  vs.  Constitution       ...  32 

IV.  — A  Garden  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Denis        .  61 
V. — A  Conspiracy   77 

VI. — A  Testimony  under  the  Guillotine    .       .  97 
VII. — A  Minister  and  his  Prisoner       .       .  .111 

VIII. —  Sick  and  in  Prison   128 

IX. — A  Restoration   152 

X. — The  Silence  of  Washington        .       .       .  165 

XI. — "  The  Age  of  Reason  "  .....  181 

XII. — Friendships    .........  223 

XIII.  — Theophilanthropy       .....  241 

XIV.  — The  Republican  Abdiel        ....  270 
XV. — The  Last  Year  in  Europe    ....  293 

XVI. — The  American  Inquisition    ....  308 

XVII. — New  Rochelle  and  the  Bonnevilles  .       .  32S 

XVIII. — A  New  York  Prometheus     ....  360 

XIX. — Personal  Traits    ......  388 

XX. — Death  and  Resurrection     ....  405 

Appendix  A. — The  Cobbett  Papers    ....  429 

Appendix  B. — The  Hall  Manuscripts       .       .       .  460 

Appendix  C. — Portraits  of  Paine      ....  473 

Appendix  D. — Brief  List  of  Paine's  Works       ,       .  482 

Index     ..........  485 

iii 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

"KILL  THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN." 

Dumas'  hero,  Dr.  Gilbert  (in  "  Ange  Pitou"),  an 
idealization  of  Paine,  interprets  his  hopes  and 
horrors  on  the  opening-  of  the  fateful  year  1793. 
Dr.  Gilbert's  pamphlets  had  helped  to  found 
liberty  in  the  New  World,  but  sees  that  it  may 
prove  the  germ  of  total  ruin  to  the  Old  World. 

"A  new  world,"  repeated  Gilbert ;  "that  is  to  say,  a  vast 
open  space,  a  clear  table  to  work  upon, — no  laws,  but  no 
abuses  ;  no  ideas,  but  no  prejudices.  In  France,  thirty 
thousand  square  leagues  of  territory  for  thirty  millions  of 
people  ;  that  is  to  say,  should  the  space  be  equally  divided, 
scarcely  room  for  a  cradle  or  a  grave  for  each.  Out  yonder, 
in  America,  two  hundred  thousand  square  leagues  for  three 
millions  of  people  ;  frontiers  which  are  ideal,  for  they  border 
on  the  desert,  which  is  to  say,  immensity.  In  those  two 
hundred  thousand  leagues,  navigable  rivers,  having  a  course 
of  a  thousand  leagues  ;  virgin  forests,  of  which  God  alone 
knows  the  limits, — that  is  to  say,  all  the  elements  of  life, 
of  civilization,  and  of  a  brilliant  future.  Oh,  how  easy  it  is. 
Billot,  when  a  man  is  called  Lafayette,  and  is  accustomed  to 
wield  a  sword  ;  when  a  man  is  called  Washington,  and  is 
accustomed  to  reflect  deeply, — how  easy  is  it  to  combat 
against  walls  of  wood,  of  earth,  of  stone,  of  human  fiesh  !  But 

Vol.  II.— I  I 


2 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1793 


when,  instead  of  founding,  it  is  necessary  to  destroy  ;  when  we 
see  in  the  old  order  things  that  we  are  obliged  to  attack, — 
walls  of  bygone,  crumbling  ideas  ;  and  that  behind  the  ruins 
even  of  these  walls  crowds  of  people  and  of  interests  still  take 
refuge  ;  when,  after  having  found  the  idea,  we  find  that  in 
order  to  make  the  people  adopt  it,  it  will  be  necessary  per- 
haps to  decimate  that  people,  from  the  old  who  remember  to 
the  child  who  has  still  to  learn  ;  from  the  recollection  which 
is  the  monument  to  the  instinct  that  is  its  germ — then,  oh 
then.  Billot,  it  is  a  task  that  will  make  all  shudder  who  can  see 
beneath  the  horizon.  ...  I  shall,  however,  persevere,  for 
although  I  see  obstacles,  I  can  perceive  the  end  ;  and  that  end 
is  splendid.  Billot.  It  is  not  the  liberty  of  France  alone  that 
I  dream  of  ;  it  is  the  liberty  of  the  whole  world.  It  is  not  the 
physical  equality  ;  it  is  equality  before  the  law, — equality  of 
rights.  It  is  not  only  the  fraternity  of  our  own  citizens,  but 
of  all  nations.  .  .  .  Forward,  then,  and  over  the  heaps  of 
our  dead  bodies  may  one  day  march  the  generations  of  which 
this  boy  here  is  in  the  advanced  guard  !  " 

Though  Dr.  Gilbert  has  been  in  the  Bastille, 
though  he  barely  escapes  the  bullet  of  a  revolu- 
tionist, he  tries  to  unite  the  throne  and  the  people. 
So,  as  we  have  seen,  did  Paine  struggle  until  the 
King  took  flight,  and,  over  his  own  signature, 
branded  all  his  pledges  as  extorted  lies.  Hence- 
forth for  the  King  personally  he  has  no  respect ; 
yet  the  whole  purpose  of  his  life  is  now  to  save 
that  of  the  prisoner.  Besides  his  humane  horror 
of  capital  punishment,  especially  in  a  case  which 
involves  the  heads  of  thousands,  Paine  foresees 
Nemesis  fashioning  her  wheels  in  every  part  of 
Europe,  and  her  rudder  across  the  ocean, — where 
America  beholds  in  Louis  XVI.  her  deliverer. 

Paine's  outlawry,  announced  by  Kersaint  in  Con- 
vention, January  ist,  was  more  eloquent  for  wrath 


17931     "KILL   THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN."  3 


than  he  for  clemency.  Under  such  menaces  the 
majority  for  sparing  Louis  shrank  with  the  New 
Year ;  French  pride  arose,  and  with  Danton  was 
eager  to  defy  despots  by  tossing  to  them  the  head 
of  a  kine.  Poor  Paine  found  his  comrades  retreat- 
ing.  What  would  a  knowledge  of  the  French 
tongue  have  been  worth  to  this  leading  republican 
of  the  world,  just  then  the  one  man  sleeplessly 
seeking  to  save  a  King's  life  !  He  could  not  plead 
with  his  enraged  republicans,  who  at  length  over- 
powered even  Brissot,  so  far  as  to  draw  him  into  the 
fatal  plan  of  voting  for  the  King's  death,  coupled 
with  submission  to  the  verdict  of  the  people,  Paine 
saw  that  there  was  at  the  moment  no  people,  but 
only  an  infuriated  clan.  He  was  now  defending  a 
forlorn  hope,  but  he  struggled  with  a  heroism  that 
would  have  commanded  the  homage  of  Europe 
had  not  its  courts  been  also  clans.  He  hit  on  a 
scheme  which  he  hoped  might,  in  that  last  extremity, 
save  the  real  revolution  from  a  suicidal  inhumanity. 
It  was  the  one  statesmanlike  proposal  of  the  time  : 
that  the  King  should  be  held  as  a  hostage  for  the 
peaceful  behavior  of  other  kings,  and,  when  their 
war  on  France  had  ceased,  banished  to  the  United 
States. 

On  January  15th,  before  the  vote  on  the  King's 
punishment  was  put,  Paine  gave  his  manuscript 
address  to  the  president :  debate  closed  before  it 
could  be  read,  and  it  was  printed.  He  argued  that 
the  Assembly,  in  bringing  back  Louis  when  he  had 
abdicated  and  fled,  was  the  more  guilty  ;  and  against 
his  transgressions  it  should  be  remembered  that  by 
his  aid  the  shackles  of  America  were  broken. 


4 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


"  Let  then  those  United  States  be  the  guard  and  the  asylum 
of  Louis  Capet.  There,  in  the  future,  remote  from  the  miseries 
and  crimes  of  royalty,  he  may  learn,  from  the  constant  pres- 
ence of  public  prosperity,  that  the  true  system  of  government 
consists  not  in  monarchs,  but  in  fair,  equal,  and  honorable 
representation.  In  recalling  this  circumstance,  and  submit- 
ting this  proposal,  I  consider  myself  a  citizen  of  both  countries. 
I  submit  it  as  an  American  who  feels  the  debt  of  gratitude  he 
owes  to  every  Frenchman.  I  submit  it  as  a  man,  who,  albeit 
an  adversary  of  kings,  forgets  not  that  they  are  subject  to 
human  frailties.  I  support  my  proposal  as  a  citizen  of  the 
French  Republic,  because  it  appears  to  me  the  best  and  most 
politic  measure  that  can  be  adopted.  As  far  as  my  experience 
in  public  life  extends,  I  have  ever  observed  that  the  great  mass 
of  people  are  always  just,  both  in  their  intentions  and  their 
object  ;  but  the  true  method  of  attaining  such  purpose  does 
not  always  appear  at  once.  The  English  nation  had  groaned 
under  the  Stuart  despotism.  Hence  Charles  I.  was  executed  ; 
but  Charles  IL  was  restored  to  all  the  powers  his  father  had 
lost.  Forty  years  later  the  same  family  tried  to  re-establish 
their  oppression  ;  the  nation  banished  the  whole  race  from  its 
territories.  The  remedy  was  effectual  ;  the  Stuart  family 
sank  into  obscurity,  merged  itself  in  the  masses,  and  is  now 
extinct." 

He  reminds  the  Convention  that  the  king  had 
two  brothers  out  of  the  country  who  might  natu- 
rally desire  his  death  :  the  execution  of  the  king 
might  make  them  presently  plausible  pretenders 
to  the  throne,  around  whom  their  foreign  enemies 
would  rally  :  while  the  man  recognized  by  foreign 
powers  as  the  rightful  monarch  of  France  was 
living  there  could  be  no  such  pretender. 

"  It  has  already  been  proposed  to  abolish  the  penalty  of 
death,  and  it  is  with  infinite  satisfaction  that  I  recollect  the 
humane  and  excellent  oration  pronounced  by  Robespierre  on 
the  subject,  in  the  constituent  Assembly.    Monarchical  gov- 


1793]     "KILL  THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN." 


5 


ernments  have  trained  the  human  race  to  sanguinary  punish- 
ments, but  the  people  should  not  follow  the  examples  of  their 
oppressors  in  such  vengeance.  As  France  has  been  the  first 
of  European  nations  to  abolish  royalty,  let  her  also  be  the 
first  to  abolish  the  punishment  of  death,  and  to  find  out  a 
milder  and  more  effectual  substitute." 

This  was  admirable  art.  Under  shelter  of 
Robespierre's  appeal  against  the  death  penalty, 
the  "  Mountain  "  ^  could  not  at  the  moment  break 
the  force  of  Paine's  plea  by  reminding  the  Con- 
vention of  his  Quaker  sentiments.  It  will  be 
borne  in  mind  that  up  to  this  time  Robespierre 
was  not  impressed,  nor  Marat  possessed,  by  the 
homicidal  demon.  Marat  had  felt  for  Paine  a 
sort  of  contemptuous  kindness,  and  one  day  pri- 
vately said  to  him :  "It  is  you,  then,  who  be- 
lieve in  a  republic  ;  you  have  too  much  sense  to 
believe  in  such  a  dream."  Robespierre,  according 
to  Lamartine,  "  affected  for  the  cosmopolitan  radi- 
calism of  Paine  the  respect  of  a  neophite  for  ideas 
not  understood."  Both  leaders  now  suspected  that 
Paine  had  gone  over  to  the  "  Brissotins,"  as  the 
Girondists  were  beginning  to  be  called.  However, 
the  Brissotins,  though  a  majority,  had  quailed  before 
the  ferocity  with  which  the  Jacobins  had  determined 
on  the  king's  death.  M.  Taine  declares  that  the 
victory  of  the  minority  in  this  case  was  the  familiar 
one  of  reckless  violence  over  the  more  civilized — 
the  wild  beast  over  the  tame.  Louis  Blanc  denies 
that  the  Convention  voted,  as  one  of  them  said, 
under  poignards  ;  but  the  signs  of  fear  are  unmis- 

'  So  called  from  the  high  benches  on  which  these  members  sat.  The  seats 
of  the  Girondists  on  the  floor  were  called  the  "  Plain,"  and  after  their  over- 
throw the  "  Marsh." 


6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


takable.  Vergniaud  had  declared  it  an  insult  for  any 
one  to  suppose  he  would  vote  for  the  king's  death, 
but  he  voted  for  it.  Villette  was  threatened  with 
death  if  he  did  not  vote  for  that  of  the  king.  Sieyes, 
who  had  attacked  Paine  for  republicanism,  voted 
death.  "  What,"  he  afterward  said — "  what  were 
the  tribute  of  my  glass  of  wine  in  that  torrent  of 
brandy  ? "  But  Paine  did  not  withhold  his  cup 
of  cold  water.  When  his  name  was  called  he  cried 
out  :  "  I  vote  for  the  detention  of  Louis  till  the 
end  of  the  war,  and  after  that  his  perpetual  banish- 
ment." He  spoke  his  well  prepared  vote  in  French, 
and  may  have  given  courage  to  others.  For  even 
under  poignards — the  most  formidable  being  lia- 
bility to  a  charge  of  royalism- — the  vote  had  barely 
gone  in  favor  of  death.^ 

The  fire-breathing  Mountain  felt  now  that  its 
supremacy  was  settled.  It  had  learned  its  deadly 
art  of  conquering  a  thinking  majority  by  reckless- 
ness. But  suddenly  another  question  was  sprung 
upon  the  Convention  :  Shall  the  execution  be  im- 
mediate, or  shall  there  be  delay  ?  The  Mountain 
groans  and  hisses  as  the  question  is  raised,  but  the 
dictation  had  not  extended  to  this  point,  and 
the  question  must  be  discussed.  Here  is  one  more 
small  chance  for  Paine's  poor  royal  client.  Can 
the  execution  only  be  postponed  it  will  probably 
never  be  executed.    Unfortunately  Marat,  whose 

'  Upwards  of  three  hundred  voted  with  Paine,  who  says  that  the  majority 
by  which  death  was  carried,  unconditionally,  was  twenty-five.  As  a  witness 
who  had  watched  the  case,  his  testimony  may  correct  the  estimate  of  Carlyle  : 

"  Death  by  a  small  majority  of  Fifty-three.  Nay,  if  we  deduct  from  the 
one  side,  and  add  to  the  other,  a  certain  Twenty-six  who  said  Death  but 
coupled  some  faintest  ineffectual  surmise  of  mercy  with  it,  the  majority  will 
be  but  One."    See  also  Paine's  "  Memoire,  etc.,  4  Monroe." 


1793]     "KILL   THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN."  7 

thirst  for  the  King's  blood  is  almost  cannibalistic, 
can  read  on  Paine's  face  his  elation.  Me  realizes 
that  this  American,  with  Washington  behind  him, 
has  laid  before  the  Convention  a  clear  and  consist- 
ent scheme  for  utilizing  the  royal  prisoner.  The 
king's  neck  under  a  suspended  knife,  it  will  rest 
with  the  foreign  enemies  of  France  whether  it  shall 
fall  or  not  ;  while  the  magnanimity  of  France  and 
its  respect  for  American  gratitude  will  prevail. 
Paine,  then,  must  be  dealt  with  somehow  in  this 
new  debate  about  delay. 

He  might,  indeed,  have  been  dealt  v/ith  sum- 
marily had  not  the  J/ci/zz'/^z^r  done  him  an  opportune 
service  ;  on  January  1 7th  and  i8th  it  printed  Paine's 
unspoken  argument  for  mercy,  along  with  Erskine's 
speech  at  his  trial  in  London,  and  the  verdict.  So 
on  the  19th,  when  Paine  entered  the  Convention, 
it  was  with  the  prestige  not  only  of  one  outlawed 
by  Great  Britain  for  advocating  the  Rights  of  Man, 
but  of  a  representative  of  the  best  Englishmen 
and  their  principles.  It  would  be  vain  to  assail 
the  author's  loyalty  to  the  republic.  That  he 
would  speak  that  day  was  certain,  for  on  the  morrow 
(20th)  the  final  vote  was  to  be  taken.  The 
Mountain  could  not  use  on  Paine  their  weapon 
against  Girondins ;  they  could  not  accuse  the 
author  of  the  "  Rights  of  Man  "  of  being  royalist. 
When  he  had  mounted  the  tribune,  and  the 
clerk  (Bancal,  Franklin's  friend)  was  beginning 
to  read  his  speech,  Marat  cried,  "  I  submit  that 
Thomas  Paine  is  incompetent  to  vote  on  this 
question ;  being  a  Quaker  his  religious  principles 
are  opposed  to  the  death-penalty."    There  was 


8  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  L»795 

great  confusion  for  a  time.  The  anger  of  the 
jacobins  was  extreme,  says  Guizot,  and  "  they  re- 
fused to  listen  to  the  speech  of  Paine,  the  American, 
till  respect  for  his  courage  gained  him  a  hearing."  ^ 
Demands  for  freedom  of  speech  gradually  subdued 
the  interruptions,  and  the  secretary  proceeded  : 

"  Very  sincerely  do  I  regret  the  Convention's  vote  of  yester- 
day for  death.  I  have  the  advantage  of  some  experience  ;  it 
is  near  twenty  years  that  I  have  been  engaged  in  the  cause  of 
liberty,  having  contributed  something  to  it  in  the  revolution 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  My  language  has  always 
been  that  of  liberty  and  humanity,  and  I  know  by  experience 
that  nothing  so  exalts  a  nation  as  the  union  of  these  two 
principles,  under  all  circumstances.  I  know  that  the  public 
mind  of  France,  and  particularly  that  of  Paris,  has  been  heated 
and  irritated  by  the  dangers  to  which  they  have  been  exposed  ; 
but  could  we  carry  our  thoughts  into  the  future,  when  the 
dangers  are  ended,  and  the  irritations  forgotten,  what  to-day 
seems  an  act  of  justice  may  then  appear  an  act  of  vengeance. 
\_Murmiirs^  My  anxiety  for  the  cause  of  France  has  become 
for  the  moment  concern  for  its  honor.  If,  on  my  return  to 
America,  I  should  employ  myself  on  a  history  of  the  French 
Revolution,  I  had  rather  record  a  thousand  errors  dictated  by 
humanity,  than  one  inspired  by  a  justice  too  severe.  I  voted 
against  an  appeal  to  the  people,  because  it  appeared  to  me 
that  the  Convention  was  needlessly  wearied  on  that  point ;  but 
I  so  voted  in  the  hope  that  this  Assembly  would  pronounce 
against  death,  and  for  the  -same  punishment  that  the  nation 
would  have  voted,  at  least  in  my  opinion,  that  is,  for  reclusion 
during  the  war  and  banishment  thereafter.  That  is  the  pun- 
ishment niost  efficacious,  because  it  includes  the  whole  family 
at  once,  and  none  other  can  so  operate.  I  am  still  against  the 
appeal  to  the  primary  assemblies,  because  there  is  a  better 
method.  This  Convention  has  been  elected  to  form  a  Con- 
stitution, which  will  be  submitted  to  the  primary  assemblies. 
After  its  acceptance  a  necessary  consequence  will  be  an  elec- 
tion, and  another  Assembly.    We  cannot  suppose  that  the 

'  "  History  of  France,"  vi.,  p.  136. 


1793]     "KILL   THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN."'  g 


present  Convention  will  last  more  than  five  or  six  months. 
The  choice  of  new  deputies  will  express  the  national  opinion 
on  the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  your  sentence,  with  as  much 
efficacy  as  if  those  primary  assemblies  had  been  consulted  on 
it.  As  the  duration  of  our  functions  here  cannot  be  long,  it 
is  a  part  of  our  duty  to  consider  the  interests  of  those  who 
shall  replace  us.  If  by  any  act  of  ours  the  number  of  the 
nation's  enemies  shall  be  needlessly  increased,  and  that  of  its 
friends  diminished, — at  a  time  when  the  finances  may  be  more 
strained  than  to-day, — we  should  not  be  justifiable  for  having 
thus  unnecessarily  heaped  obstacles  in  the  path  of  our  suc- 
cessors.   Let  us  therefore  not  be  precipitate  in  our  decisions. 

"  France  has  but  one  ally — the  United  States  of  America. 
That  is  the  only  nation  that  can  furnish  France  with  naval 
provisions,  for  the  kingdoms  of  northern  Europe  are,  or  soon 
will  be,  at  war  with  her.  It  happens,  unfortunately,  that  the 
person  now  under  discussion  is  regarded  in  America  as  a 
deliverer  of  their  country.  I  can  assure  you  that  his  execution 
will  there  spread  universal  sorrow,  and  it  is  in  your  power 
not  thus  to  wound  the  feelings  of  your  ally.  Could  I  speak 
the  French  language  I  would  descend  to  your  bar,  and  in 
their  name  become  your  petitioner  to  respite  the  execution 
of  the  sentence  on  Louis." 

Here  were  loud  murmurs  from  the  "  Mountain," 
answered  with  demands  for  hberty  of  opinion. 
Thuriot  sprang  to  his  feet  crying,  "  This  is  not  the 
language  of  Thomas  Paine."  Marat  mounted 
the  tribune  and  asked  Paine  some  questions,  ap- 
parently in  English,  then  descending  he  said  to  the 
Assembly  in  French  :  "  I  denounce  the  interpreter, 
and  I  maintain  that  such  is  not  the  opinion  of 
Thomas  Paine.  It  is  a  wicked  and  faithless  trans- 
lation." ^    These  words,  audacious  as  mendacious, 

'  ' '  Venant  d'un  democrate  tel  que  Thomas  Paine,  d'un  homme  qui  avait 
vecu  parmi  las  Ame'ricains,  d'un  penseur,  cette  declaration  parut  si  danger- 
euse  a  Marat  que,  pour  en  detruire  I'effet,  il  n'hesita  pas  a  s'ecrier  :  '  Je 
denonce  le  truchement.  Je  soutiens  que  ce  n'est  point  la  Topinion  dc 
Thomas  Paine.  C'est  ime  traduction  infidele.' " — Louis  Blanc.  See  alsc 
"  Histoire  Parliamentaire,"  xxiii.,  p.  250. 


lO  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l793 

caused  a  tremendous  uproar.  Garran  came  to  the 
rescue  of  the  frightened  clerk,  declaring  that  he 
had  read  the  original,  and  the  translation  was  cor- 
rect. Paine  stood  silent  and  calm  during  the  storm. 
The  clerk  proceeded  : 

"  Your  Executive  Committee  will  nominate  an  ambassador 
to  Philadelphia  ;  my  sincere  wish  is  that  he  may  announce  to 
America  that  the  National  Convention  of  France,  out  of  pure 
friendship  to  America,  has  consented  to  respite  Louis.  That 
people,  your  only  ally,  have  asked  you  by  my  vote  to  delay 
the  execution. 

"  Ah,  citizens,  give  not  the  tyrant  of  England  the  triumph 
of  seeing  the  man  perish  on  a  scaffold  who  helped  my  dear 
brothers  of  America  to  break  his  chains  !  " 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  speech  Marat  "launched 
himself  into  the  middle  of  the  hall  "  and  cried  out 
that  Paine  had  "  voted  against  the  punishment 
of  death  because  he  was  a  preacher."  Paine  re- 
plied, "  I  voted  against  it  both  morally  and  politi- 
cally." 

Had  the  vote  been  taken  that  day  perhaps  Louis 
might  have  escaped.  Brissot,  shielded  from  charges 
of  royalism  by  Paine's  republican  fame,  now  strongly 
supported  his  cause.  "  A  cruel  precipitation,"  he 
cried,  "may  alienate  our  friends  in  England,  Ire- 
land, America.  Take  care  !  The  opinion  of  Euro- 
pean peoples  is  worth  to  you  armies  !  "  But  all 
this  only  brought  out  the  Mountain's  particular 
kind  of  courage ;  they  were  ready  to  defy  the 
world — Washington  included — in  order  to  prove 
that  a  King's  neck  was  no  more  than  any  other 
man's.  Marat's  clan — the  "  Nihilists"  of  the  time, 
whose  strength  was  that  they  stopped  at  nothing 


1793]     "KILL   THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN."  II 


— had  twenty-four  hours  to  work  in  ;  they  sur- 
rounded the  Convention  next  day  with  a  mob 
howling  for  "  justice  !  "  Fifty-five  members  were 
absent ;  of  the  690  present  a  majority  of  seventy 
decided  that  Louis  XVI.  should  die  within  twenty- 
four  hours. 

A  hundred  years  have  passed  since  that  tragedy 
of  poor  Louis ;  graves  have  given  up  their  dead  ; 
secrets  of  the  hearts  that  then  played  their  part  are 
known.  The  world  can  now  judge  between  Eng- 
land's Outlaw  and  England's  King  of  that  day.  For 
it  is  established,  as  we  have  seen,  both  by  English 
and  French  archives,  that  while  Thomas  Paine  was 
toiling  night  and  day  to  save  the  life  of  Louis  that 
life  lay  in  the  hand  of  the  British  Ministry.  Some 
writers  question  the  historic  truth  of  the  offer  made 
by  Danton,  but  none  can  question  the  refusal  of 
intercession,  urged  by  Fox  and  others  at  a  time 
when  (as  Count  d'Estaing  told  Morris)  the  Con- 
vention was  ready  to  give  Pitt  the  whole  French 
West  Indies  to  keep  him  quiet.  It  was  no  doubt 
with  this  knowledge  that  Paine  declared  from  the 
tribune  that  George  III.  would  triumph  in  the  exe- 
cution of  the  King  who  helped  America  to  break 
England's  chains.  Brissot  also  knew  it  when  with 
weighed  words  he  reported  for  his  Committee 
(January  12th):  "The  grievance  of  the  British 
Cabinet  against  France  is  not  that  Louis  is  in 
judgment,  but  that  Thomas  Paine  wrote  '  The 
Rights  of  Man.'  "  "  The  militia  were  armed,"  says 
Louis  Blanc,  "  in  the  south-east  of  England  troops 
received  order  to  march  to  London,  the  meeting  of 
Parliament  was  advanced  forty  days,  the  Tower 


12 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


was  reinforced  by  a  new  garrison,  in  fine  there  was 
unrolled  a  formidable  preparation  of  war  against 
—Thomas  Paine's  book  on  the  Rights  of  Man  ! 

Incredible  as  this  may  appear  the  debates  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  on  which  it  is  fairly  founded, 
would  be  more  incredible  were  they  not  duly  re- 
ported in  the  "Parliamentary  History."'  In  the 
debates  on  the  Alien  Bill,  permitting  the  King  to 
order  any  foreigner  out  of  the  country  at  will,  on 
making  representations  to  the  French  Convention 
in  behalf  of  the  life  of  Louis,  on  augmenting  the 
military  forces  with  direct  reference  to  France,  the 
recent  trial  of  Paine  was  rehearsed,  and  it  was 
plainly  shown  that  the  object  of  the  government 
was  to  suppress  freedom  of  the  press  by  Terror. 
Erskine  was  denounced  for  defending  Paine  and 
for  afterwards  attending  a  meeting  of  the  "  Society 
of  Friends  of  the  Liberty  of  the  Press,"  to  whose 
resolutions  on  Paine's  case  his  name  was  attached. 
Erskine  found  gallant  defenders  in  the  House, 
among  them  Fox,  who  demanded  of  Pitt :  "  Can 
you  not  prosecute  Paine  without  an  army  ? " 
Burke  at  this  time  enacted  a  dramatic  scene. 
Having  stated  that  three  thousand  daggers  had 
been  ordered  at  Birmingham  by  an  Englishman,  he 
drew  from  his  pocket  a  dagger,  cast  it  on  the  floor 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  cried  :  "  That  is 
what  we  are  to  get  from  an  alliance  with  France  !  " 
Paine — Paine — Paine — was  the  burden  laid  on  Pitt, 
who  had  said  to  Lady  Hester  Stanhope:  "Tom 
Paine  is  quite  right."   That  Thomas  Paine  and  his 

'  "  Histoire  de  la  Revolution,"  vol.  viii.,  p.  96. 
=  Vol.  XXV. 


1793]     '"KILL   THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN."  1 3 


Rights  of  Man  "  were  the  actual  cause  of  the 
EnMish  insults  to  which  their  declaration  of  war 

o 

replied  was  so  well  understood  in  the  French  Con- 
vention that  its  first  answer  to  the  menaces  was  to 
appoint  Paine  and  Condorcet  to  write  an  address  to 
the  English  people.' 

It  is  noticeable  that  on  the  question  whether  the 
judgment  on  the  King's  fate  should  be  submitted 
to  the  people,  Paine  voted  "  No."  His  belief  in 
the  right  of  all  to  representation  implied  distrust  of 
the  immediate  voice  of  the  masses.  The  King  had 
said  that  if  his  case  were  referred  to  the  people  "he 
should  be  massacred."  Gouverneur  Morris  had 
heard  this,  and  no  doubt  communicated  it  to  Paine, 
who  was  in  consultation  with  him  on  his  plan  of 
sending  Louis  to  America.^  Indeed,  it  ,is  probable 
that  popular  suffrage  would  have  ratified  the  decree. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  a  fair  "  appeal  to  the  people" 
which  Paine  made,  after  the  fatal  verdict,  in  ex- 
pressing to  the  Convention  his  belief  that  the 
people  would  not  have  done  so.  For  after  the 
decree  the  helplessness  of  the  prisoner  appealed  to 
popular  compassion,  and  on  the  fatal  day  the  tide 
had  turned.  Four  days  after  the  execution  the 
American  Minister  writes  to  Jefferson  :  "  The 
greatest  care  was  taken  to  prevent  a  concourse  of 
people.  This  proves  a  conviction  that  the  majority 
was  not  favorable  to  that  severe  measure.  In  fact 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  mourned  the  fate  of 
their  unhappy  prince." 

'  "  Le  Departement  des  Affaires  Etrangeres  pendant  la  Revolution,  1787- 
1804."  Par  Frederic  Masson,  Bibliothecaire  du  Ministere  des  Affaires 
Etrangeres.    Paris,  1877,  p.  273. 

*  Morris'  "  Diary,"  ii.,  pp.  19,  27,  32. 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l793 


To  Paine  the  death  of  an  "  unhappy  prince  "  was 
no  more  a  subject  for  mourning  than  that  of  the 
humblest  criminal — for,  with  whatever  extenuating 
circumstances,  a  criminal  he  was  to  the  republic  he 
had  sworn  to  administer.  But  the  impolicy  of  the 
execution,  the  resentment  uselessly  incurred,  the 
loss  of  prestige  in  America,  were  felt  by  Paine  as  a 
heavy  blow  to  his  cause — always  the  international 
republic.  He  was,  however,  behind  the  scenes 
enough  to  know  that  the  blame  rested  mainly  on 
America's  old  enemy  and  his  league  of  foreign 
courts  against  liberated  France.  The  man  who, 
when  Franklin  said  "  Where  liberty  is,  there  is  my 
country,"  answered  "  Where  liberty  is  not,  there  is 
mine,"  would  not  despair  of  the  infant  republic  be- 
cause of  its  blunders.  Attributing  these  outbursts 
to  maddening  conspiracies  around  and  within  the 
new-born  nation,  he  did  not  believe  there  could  be 
peace  in  Europe  so  long  as  it  was  ruled  by  George 
III.  He  therefore  set  himself  to  the  struggle,  as 
he  had  done  in  1776.  Moreover,  Paine  has  faith 
in  Providence.' 

At  this  time,  it  should  be  remembered,  opposi- 
tion to  capital  punishment  was  confined  to  very 

'  "  The  same  spirit  of  fortitude  that  insured  success  to  America  will  insure 
it  to  France,  for  it  is  impossible  to  conquer  a  nation  determined  to  be  free. 

Man  is  ever  a  stranger  to  the  ways  by  which  Providence  regulates 
the  order  of  things.  The  interference  of  foreign  despots  may  serve  to  intro- 
duce into  their  own  enslaved  countries  the  principles  they  come  to  oppose. 
Liberty  and  equality  are  blessings  too  great  to  be  the  inheritance  of  France 
alone.  It  is  honour  to  her  to  be  their  first  champion  ;  and  she  may  now  say 
to  her  enemies,  with  a  mighty  voice,  '  O,  ye  Austrians,  ye  Prussians  !  ye 
who  now  turn  your  bayonets  against  us,  it  is  for  you,  it  is  for  all  Europe,  it 
is  for  all  mankind,  and  not  for  France  alone,  that  she  raises  the  standard  of 
Liberty  and  Equality  ! '  " — Paine's  address  to  the  Convention  (September  25, 
1792)  after  taking  his  seat. 


1793] 


KILL   THE  KING,  BUT  NOT  THE  MAN." 


15 


few  outside  of  the  despised  sect  of  Quakers,  In 
the  debate  three,  besides  Paine,  gave  emphatic 
expression  to  that  sentiment,  IManuel,  Condorcet, 
— Robespierre  !  The  former,  in  giving  his  vote 
against  death,  said  :  "  To  Nature  belongs  the  right 
of  death.  Despotism  has  taken  it  from  her  ; 
Liberty  will  return  it."  As  for  Robespierre,  his 
argument  was  a  very  powerful  reply  to  Paine,  who 
had  reminded  him  of  the  bill  he  had  introduced 
into  the  old  National  Assembly  for  the  abolition 
of  capital  punishment.  He  did,  indeed,  abhor  it, 
he  said  ;  it  was  not  his  fault  if  his  views  had  been 
disregarded.  But  why  should  men  who  then  op- 
posed him  suddenly  revive  the  claims  of  humanity 
when  the  penalty  happened  to  fall  upon  a  King  ? 
Was  the  penalty  good  enough  for  the  people,  but 
not  for  a  King?  If  there  were  any  exception  in 
favor  of  such  a  punishment,  it  should  be  for  a  royal 
criminal. 

This  opinion  of  Robespierre  is  held  by  some 
humane  men.  The  present  writer  heard  from 
Professor  Francis  W.  Newman — second  to  none  in 
philanthropy  and  compassionateness — a  suggestion 
that  the  death  penalty  should  be  reserved  for  those 
placed  at  the  head  of  affairs  who  betray  their  trust, 
or  set  their  own  above  the  public  interests  to  the 
injury  of  a  Commonwealth. 

The  real  reasons  for  the  execution  of  the  King 
closely  resemble  those  of  Washington  for  the 
execution  of  Major  Andre,  notwithstanding  the 
sorrow  of  the  country,  with  which  the  Commander 
sympathized.  The  equal  nationality  of  the  United 
States,  repudiated  by  Great  Britain,  was  in  ques- 


1 6  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 

tion.  To  hang  spies  was,  however  illogically,  a 
Conventional  usage  among  nations.  Major  Andre 
must  die,  therefore,  and  must  be  refused  the 
soldier's  death  for  which  he  petitioned.  For  a  like 
reason  Europe  must  be  shown  that  the  French 
Convention  is  peer  of  their  scornful  Parliaments  ; 
and  its  fundamental  principle,  the  equality  of  men, 
could  not  admit  a  King's  escape  from  the  penalty 
which  would  be  unhesitatingly  inflicted  on  a  "  Citi- 
zen." The  King  had  assumed  the  title  of  Citizen, 
had  worn  the  republican  cockade  ;  the  apparent 
concession  of  royal  inviolability,  in  the  moment  of 
his  betrayal  of  the  compromise  made  with  him, 
could  be  justified  only  on  the  grounds  stated  by 
Paine, — impolicy  of  slaying  their  hostage,  creating 
pretenders,  alienating  America ;  and  the  honor  of 
exhibiting  to  the  world,  by  a  salient  example,  the 
Republic's  magnanimity  in  contrast  with  the  cruelty 
of  Kings. 


CHAPTER  II. 


AN  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR. 

Soon  after  Paine  had  taken  his  seat  in  the 
Convention,  Lord  Fortescue  wrote  to  Miles,  an 
EngHsh  agent  in  Paris,  a  letter  fairly  expressive  of 
the  feelings,  fears,  and  hopes  of  his  class. 

"  Tom  Paine  is  just  where  he  ought  to  be — a  member  of  the 
Convention  of  Cannibals.  One  would  have  thought  it  im- 
possible that  any  society  upon  the  face  of  the  globe  should 
have  been  fit  for  the  reception  of  such  a  being  until  the  late 
deeds  of  the  National  Convention  have  shown  them  to  be 
most  fully  qualified.  His  vocation  will  not  be  complete,  nor 
theirs  either,  till  his  head  finds  its  way  to  the  top  of  a  pike, 
which  will  probably  not  be  long  first."  ' 

*  This  letter,  dated  September  26,  1792,  appears  in  the  Miles  Cor- 
respondence (London,  1890).  There  are  indications  that  Miles  was  favor- 
ably disposed  towards  Paine,  and  on  that  account,  perhaps,  was  subjected 
to  influence  by  his  superiors.  As  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  just 
minds  were  poisoned  towards  Paine,  a  note  of  Miles  may  be  mentioned. 
He  says  he  was  "told  by  Col.  Bosville,  a  declared  friend  of  Paine,  that 
his  manners  and  conversation  were  coarse,  and  he  loved  the  brandy  bottle." 
But  just  as  this  Miles  Correspondence  was  appearing  in  London,  Dr. 
Grece  found  the  manuscript  diary  of  Rickman,  who  had  discovered  (as  two 
entries  show)  that  this  "  declared  friend  of  Paine,"  Col.  Bosville,  and  pro- 
fessed friend  of  himself,  was  going  about  uttering  injurious  falsehoods  con- 
cerning him  (Rickman),  seeking  to  alienate  his  friends  at  the  moment  when 
he  most  needed  them.  Rickman  was  a  bookseller  engaged  in  circulating 
Paine's  works.  There  is  little  doubt  that  this  wealthy  Col.  Bosville  was 
at  the  time  unfriendly  to  the  radicals.  He  was  staying  in  Paris  on  Paine's 
political  credit,  while  depreciating  him. 

Vol.  II.— 2.  17 


i8 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1793 


But  if  Paine  was  so  fit  for  such  a  Convention, 
why  should  they  behead  him  ?  The  letter  betrays 
a  real  perception  that  Paine  possesses  humane 
principles,  and  an  English  courage,  which  would 
bring  him  into  danger.  This  undertone  of  For- 
tescue's  invective  represented  the  profound  con- 
fidence of  Paine's  adherents  in  England.  When 
tidings  came  of  the  King's  trial  and  execution, 
whatever  glimpses  they  gained  of  their  outlawed 
leader  showed  him  steadfast  as  a  star  caught  in  one 
wave  and  another  of  that  turbid  tide.  Many,  alas, 
needed  apologies,  but  Paine  required  none.  That 
one  Englishman,  standing  on  the  tribune  for  justice 
and  humanity,  amid  three  hundred  angry  French- 
men in  uproar,  was  as  sublime  a  sight  as  Europe 
witnessed  in  those  days.  To  the  English  radical 
the  outlawry  of  Paine  was  as  the  tax  on  light, 
which  was  presently  walling  up  London  windows, 
or  extorting  from  them  the  means  of  war  against 
ideas.  *  The  trial  of  Paine  had  elucidated  nothing, 
except  that,  like  Jupiter,  John  Bull  had  the  thun- 
derbolts, and  Paine  the  arguments.  Indeed,  it  is 
difficult  to  discover  any  other  Englishman  who  at 
the  moment  pre-eminently  stood  for  principles  now 
proudly  called  English. 

But  Paine  too  presently  held  thunderbolts.  Al- 
though his  efforts  to  save  Louis  had  offended  the 

•  In  a  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  "  The  Rights  of  Man,"  which  I  bought 
in  London,  I  found,  as  a  sort  of  book-mark,  a  bill  for  i/.  6^.  8(/.,  two 
quarters'  window-tax,  due  from  Mr.  Williamson,  Upper  Fitzroy  Place. 
Windows  closed  with  bricks  are  still  seen  in  some  of  the  gloomiest  parts  of 
London.    I  have  in  manuscript  a  bitter  anathema  of  the  time  : 

"  God  made  the  Light,  and  saw  that  it  was  good  : 
Pitt  laid  a  tax  on  it,— G—  d—  his  blood  !  " 


1793]      -^^  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR. 


19 


"  Mountain,"  and  momentarily  brought  him  into 
the  danger  Lord  Fortescue  predicted,  that  party 
was  not  yet  in  the  ascendant.  The  Girondists  were 
still  in  power,  and  though  some  of  their  leaders 
had  bent  before  the  storm,  that  they  might  not  be 
broken,  they  had  been  impressed  both  by  the  cour- 
age and  the  tactics  of  Paine.  "The  Girondists 
consulted  Paine,"  says  Lamartine,  "and  placed  him 
on  the  Committee  of  Surveillance."  At  this  mo- 
ment many  Englishmen  were  in  France,  and  at  a 
word  from  Paine  some  of  their  heads  might  have 
mounted  on  the  pike  which  Lord  Fortescue  had 
imaginatively  prepared  for  the  head  that  wrote  "The 
Rights  of  Man."  There  remained,  for  instance, 
Mr.  Munro,  already  mentioned.  This  gentleman, 
in  a  note  preserved  in  the  English  Archives,  had 
written  to  Lord  Grenville  (September  8,  1792) 
concerning  Paine  :  "  What  must  a  nation  come  to 
that  has  so  little  discernment  in  the  election  of  their 
representatives,  as  to  elect  such  a  fellow  ?  "  But 
having  lingered  in  Paris  after  England's  formal 
declaration  of  war  (February  nth),  Munro  was 
cast  into  prison.  He  owed  his  release  to  that 
"  fellow "  Paine,  and  must  be  duly  credited  with 
having  acknowledged  it,  and  changed  his  tone  for 
the  rest  of  his  life, — which  he  probably  owed  to  the 
English  committeeman.  Had  Paine  met  with  the 
fate  which  Lords  Gower  and  Fortescue  hoped,  it 
would  have  gone  hard  with  another  eminent  coun- 
tryman of  theirs, — Captain  Grimstone,  R.A.  This 
personage,  during  a  dinner  party  at  the  Palais 
Egalite,  got  into  a  controversy  with  Paine,  and, 
forgetting  that  the  English  Jove  could  not  in  Paris 


20 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


safely  answer  argument  with  thunder,  called  Paine 
a  traitor  to  his  country  and  struck  him  a  violent 
blow.  Death  was  the  penalty  of  striking  a  deputy, 
and  Paine's  friends  were  not  unwilling  to  see 
the  penalty  inflicted  on  this  stout  young  Captain 
who  had  struck  a  man  of  fifty-six.  Paine  had 
much  trouble  in  obtaining  from  Barr^re,  of  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety,  a  passport  out  of  the 
country  for  Captain  Grimstone,  whose  travelling 
expenses  were  supplied  by  the  man  he  had  struck. 

In  a  later  instance,  related  by  Walter  Savage 
Landor,  Paine's  generosity  amounted  to  quixotism. 
The  story  is  finely  told  by  Landor,  who  says  in  a 
note  :  "This  anecdote  was  communicated  to  me  at 
Florence  by  Mr.  Evans,  a  painter  of  merit,  who 
studied  under  Lawrence,  and  who  knew  personally 
(Zachariah)  Wilkes  and  Watt.  In  religion  and 
politics  he  differed  widely  from  Paine." 

"Sir,"  said  he,  "let  me  tell  you  what  he  did  for  me.  My 
name  is  Zachariah  Wilkes.  I  was  arrested  in  Paris  and  con- 
demned to  die.  I  had  no  friend  here  ;  and  it  was  a  time  when 
no  friend  would  have  served  me  :  Robespierre  ruled.  '  I  am 
innocent  !  '  I  cried  in  desperation.  '  I  am  innocent,  so  help 
me  God  !  I  am  condemned  for  the  offence  of  another.'  I 
wrote  a  statement  of  my  case  with  a  pencil ;  thinking  at  first 
of  addressing  it  to  my  judge,  then  of  directing  it  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Convention.  The  jailer,  who  had  been  kind  to  me, 
gave  me  a  gazette,  and  told  me  not  to  mind  seeing  my  name, 
so  many  were  there  before  it. 

"  '  O  ! '  said  I  '  though  you  would  not  lend  me  your  ink,  do 
transmit  this  paper  to  the  president.' 

"  '  No,  my  friend  !  '  answered  he  gaily.  *  My  head  is  as  good 
as  yours,  and  looks  as  well  between  the  shoulders,  to  my 
liking.  Why  not  send  it  (if  you  send  it  anywhere)  to  the 
deputy  Paine  here  ? '  pointing  to  a  column  in  the  paper. 


1793I  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  21 


"  '  O  God  !  he  must  hate  and  detest  the  name  of  English- 
man :  pelted,  insulted,  persecuted,  plundered    .    .  .' 

"  *  I  could  give  it  to  him,'  said  the  jailer. 

"  '  Do  then  ! '  said  I  wildly.  '  One  man  more  shall  know  my 
innocence.'  He  came  within  the  half  hour.  I  told  him  my 
name,  that  my  employers  were  Watt  and  Boulton  of  Birming- 
ham, that  I  had  papers  of  the  greatest  consequence,  that  if  I 
failed  to  transmit  them,  not  only  my  life  was  in  question,  but 
my  reputation.  He  replied  :  *  I  know  your  employers  by  report 
only  ;  there  are  no  two  men  less  favourable  to  the  principles  I 
profess,  but  no  two  upon  earth  are  honester.  You  have  only 
one  great  man  among  you  :  it  is  Watt  ;  for  Priestley  is  gone 
to  America.  The  church-and-king  men  would  have  japanned 
him.  He  left  to  these  philosophers  of  the  rival  school  his 
house  to  try  experiments  on  ;  and  you  may  know,  better  than 
I  do,  how  much  they  found  in  it  of  carbon  and  calx,  of  silex 
and  argilla.' 

"  He  examined  me  closer  than  my  judge  had  done  ;  he 
required  my  proofs.  After  a  long  time  I  satisfied  him.  He 
then  said,  '  The  leaders  of  the  Convention  would  rather  have 
my  life  than  yours.  If  by  any  means  I  can  obtain  your 
release  on  my  own  security,  will  you  promise  me  to  return 
within  twenty  days  ? '  I  answered,  '  Sir,  the  security  I  can  at 
present  give  you,  is  trifling  ...  I  should  say  a  mere 
nothing.' 

"  '  Then  you  do  not  give  me  your  word  ? '  said  he. 
"  '  I  give  it  and  will  redeem  it.' 

"  He  went  away,  and  told  me  I  should  see  him  again  when 
he  could  inform  me  whether  he  had  succeeded.  He  returned 
in  the  earlier  part  of  the  evening,  looked  fixedly  upon  me,  and 
said,  '  Zachariah  Wilkes  !  if  you  do  not  return  in  twenty-four 
days  (four  are  added)  you  will  be  the  most  unhappy  of  men  ; 
for  had  you  not  been  an  honest  one,  you  could  not  be  the 
agent  of  Watt  and  Boulton.  I  do  not  think  I  have  hazarded 
much  in  offering  to  take  your  place  on  your  failure  :  such  is 
the  condition.'  I  was  speechless  ;  he  was  unmoved.  Silence 
was  first  broken  by  the  jailer.  '  He  seems  to  get  fond  of  the 
spot  now  he  must  leave  it.'  I  had  thrown  my  arms  upon  the 
table  towards  my  liberator,  who  sat  opposite,  and  I  rested  my 
head  and  breast  upon  it  too,  for  my  temples  ached  and  tears 


22 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  ti793 


had  not  yet  relieved  them.  He  said,  '  Zachariah  !  follow  me 
to  the  carriage.'  The  soldiers  paid  the  respect  due  to  his 
scarf,  presenting  arms,  and  drawing  up  in  file  as  we  went 
along.  The  jailer  called  for  a  glass  of  wine,  gave  it  me, 
poured  out  another,  and  drank  to  our  next  meeting."  ' 

Another  instance  may  be  related  in  Paine's  own 
words,  written  (March  20,  1806)  to  a  gentleman  in 
New  York. 

"  Sir, — I  will  inform  you  of  what  I  know  respecting  General 
Miranda,  with  whom  I  first  became  acquainted  at  New  York, 
about  the  year  1783.  He  is  a  man  of  talents  and  enterprise, 
and  the  whole  of  his  life  has  been  a  life  of  adventures. 

"  I  went  to  Europe  from  New  York  in  April,  1787.  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son was  then  Minister  from  America  to  France,  and  Mr.  Lit- 
tlepage,  a  Virginian  (whom  Mr.  Jay  knows),  was  agent  for  the 
king  of  Poland,  at  Paris.  Mr.  Littlepage  was  a  young  man  of 
extraordinary  talents,  and  I  first  met  with  him  at  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's house  at  dinner.  By  his  intimacy  with  the  king  of 
Poland,  to  whom  also  he  was  chamberlain,  he  became  well 
acquainted  with  the  plans  and  projects  of  the  Northern 
Powers  of  Europe.  He  told  me  of  Miranda's  getting  himself 
introduced  to  the  Empress  Catharine  of  Russia,  and  obtaining 
a  sum  of  money  from  her,  four  thousand  pounds  sterling  ;  but 
it  did  not  appear  to  me  what  the  object  was  for  which  the 
money  was  given  ;  it  appeared  a  kind  of  retaining  fee. 

"  After  I  had  published  the  first  part  of  the  '  Rights  of 
Man  '  in  England,  in  the  year  1791, 1  met  Miranda  at  the  house 
of  TurnbuU  and  Forbes,  merchants,  Devonshire  Square,  Lon- 
don. He  had  been  a  little  before  this  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Pitt, 
with  respect  to  the  affair  of  Nootka  Sound,  but  I  did  not  at 
that  time  know  it  ;  and  I  will,  in  the  course  of  this  letter, 
inform  you  how  this  connection  between  Pitt  and  Miranda 
ended  ;  for  I  know  it  of  my  own  knowledge. 

'  Zachariah  Wilkes  did  not  fail  to  return,  or  Paine  to  greet  him  with 
safety,  and  the  words,  "  There  is  yet  English  blood  in  England."  But  here 
Landor  passes  off  into  an  imaginative  picture  of  villages  rejoicing  at  the  fall 
of  Robespierre.  Paine  himself  had  then  been  in  prison  seven  months  ;  so 
we  can  only  conjecture  the  means  by  which  Zachariah  was  liberated. — Lan- 
der's Works,  London,  1853,  i.,  p.  296. 


1793]      AN  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  23 


''•  I  published  the  second  part  of  the  *  Rights  of  Man  '  in 
London,  in  February,  1792,  and  I  continued  in  London  till  I 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  French  Convention,  in  September 
of  that  year  ;  and  went  from  London  to  Paris  to  take  my  seat 
in  the  Convention,  which  was  to  meet  the  20th  of  that  month. 
I  arrived  in  Paris  on  the  19th.  After  the  Convention  met, 
Miranda  came  to  Paris,  and  was  appointed  general  of  the 
French  army,  under  General  Dumouriez.  But  as  the  affairs 
of  that  army  went  wrong  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1793, 
Miranda  was  suspected,  and  was  brought  under  arrest  to  Paris 
to  take  his  trial.  He  summoned  me  to  appear  to  his  charac- 
ter, and  also  a  Mr.  Thomas  Christie,  connected  with  the  house 
of  Turnbull  and  Forbes.  I  gave  my  testimony  as  I  believed, 
which  was,  that  his  leading  object  was  and  had  been  the  eman- 
cipation of  his  country,  Mexico,  from  the  bondage  of  Spain  ; 
for  I  did  not  at  that  time  know  of  his  engagements  with  Pitt. 
Mr.  Christie's  evidence  went  to  show  that  Miranda  did  not 
come  to  France  as  a  necessitous  adventurer  ;  but  believed  he 
came  from  public-spirited  motives,  and  that  he  had  a  large 
sum  of  money  in  the  hands  of  Turnbull  and  Forbes.  The 
house  of  Turnbull  and  Forbes  was  then  in  a  contract  to  sup- 
ply Paris  with  flour.    Miranda  was  acquitted. 

"A  few  days  after  his  acquittal  he  came  to  see  me,  and  in  a 
few  days  afterwards  I  returned  his  visit.  He  seemed  desirous 
of  satisfying  me  that  he  was  independent,  and  that  he  had 
money  in  the  hands  of  Turnbull  and  Forbes.  He  did  not  tell 
me  of  his  affair  with  old  Catharine  of  Russia,  nor  did  I  tell 
him  that  I  knew  of  it.  But  he  entered  into  conversation  with 
respect  to  Nootka  Sound,  and  put  into  my  hands  several  let- 
ters of  Mr.  Pitt's  to  him  on  that  subject  ;  amongst  which  was 
one  which  I  believe  he  gave  me  by  mistake,  for  when  I  had 
opened  it,  and  was  beginning  to  read  it,  he  put  forth  his  hand 
and  said, '  O,  that  is  not  the  letter  I  intended  '  ;  but  as  the 
letter  was  short  I  soon  got  through  with  it,  and  then  returned 
it  to  him  without  making  any  remarks  upon  it.  The  dispute 
with  Spain  was  then  compromised  ;  and  Pitt  compromised 
with  Miranda  for  his  services  by  giving  him  twelve  hundred 
pounds  sterling,  for  this  was  the  contents  of  the  letter. 

"  Now  if  it  be  true  that  Miranda  brought  with  him  a  credit 
upon  certain  persons  in  New  York  for  sixty  thousand  pounds 


24 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE,  [i795 


Sterling,  it  is  not  difficult  to  suppose  from  what  quarter  the 
money  came  ;  for  the  opening  of  any  proposals  between  Pitt 
and  Miranda  was  already  made  by  the  affair  of  Nootka  Sound. 
Miranda  was  in  Paris  when  Mr.  Monroe  arrived  there  as  Min- 
ister ;  and  as  Miranda  wanted  to  get  acquainted  with  him,  I 
cautioned  Mr.  Monroe  against  him,  and  told  him  of  the  affair 
of  Nootka  Sound,  and  the  twelve  hundred  pounds. 

"  You  are  at  liberty  to  make  what  use  you  please  of  this 
letter,  and  with  my  name  to  it." 

Here  we  find  a  paid  agent  of  Pitt  calling  on 
outlawed  Paine  for  aid,  by  his  help  liberated  from 
prison  ;  and,  when  his  true  character  is  accidentally 
discovered,  and  he  is  at  the  outlaw's  mercy,  spared, 
— no  doubt  because  this  true  English  ambassador, 
who  could  not  enter  England,  saw  that  at  the  mo- 
ment passionate  vengeance  had  taken  the  place  of 
justice  in  Paris.  Lord  Gower  had  departed,  and 
Paine  must  try  and  shield  even  his  English  enemies 
and  their  agents,  where,  as  in  Miranda's  case,  the 
agency  did  not  appear  to  affect  France.  This  was 
while  his  friends  in  England  were  hunted  down 
with  ferocity. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  French  Revolution 
there  was  much  sympathy  with  it  among  literary 
men  and  in  the  universities.  Coleridge,  Southey, 
Wordsworth,  were  leaders  in  the  revolutionary 
cult  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  By  1792,  and 
especially  after  the  institution  of  Paine's  prosecu- 
tion, the  repression  became  determined.  The  me- 
moir of  Thomas  Poole,  already  referred  to,  gives 
the  experiences  of  a  Somerset  gentleman,  a  friend 
of  Coleridge.  After  the  publication  of  Paine's 
"Rights  of  Man"  (1791)  he  became  a  "political 
Ishmaelite."    "  He  made  his  appearance  amongst 


1793]  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  25 


the  wigs  and  powdered  locks  of  his  kinsfolk  and 
acquaintance,  male  and  female,  without  any  of  the 
customary  powder  in  his  hair,  which  innocent 
novelty  was  a  scandal  to  all  beholders,  seeing  that 
it  was  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  a  love  of 
innovation,  a  well-known  badge  of  sympathy  with 
democratic  ideas." 

Among  Poole's  friends,  at  Stowey,  was  an  attor- 
ney named  Symes,  who  lent  him  Paine's  "  Rights 
of  Man."  After  Paine's  outlawry  Symes  met  a 
cabinet-maker  with  a  copy  of  the  book,  snatched  it 
out  of  his  hand,  tore  it  up,  and,  having  learned 
that  it  was  lent  him  by  Poole,  propagated  about 
the  country  that  he  (Poole)  was  distributing  sedi- 
tious literature  about  the  country.  Being  an  influ- 
ential man,  Poole  prevented  the  burning  of  Paine 
in  efifigy  at  Stowey.  As  time  goes  on  this  coun- 
try-gentleman and  scholar  finds  the  government 
opening  his  letters,  and  warning  his  friends  that 
he  is  in  danger. 

"  It  was,"  he  writes  to  a  friend,  "  the  boast  an  Englishman 
was  wont  to  make  that  he  could  think,  speak,  and  write  what- 
ever he  thought  proper,  provided  he  violated  no  law,  nor  in- 
jured any  individual.  But  now  an  absolute  controul  exists,  not 
indeed  over  the  imperceptible  operations  of  the  mind,  for 
those  no  power  of  man  can  controul  ;  but,  what  is  the  same 
thing,  over  the  effects  of  those  operations,  and  if  among  these 
effects,  that  of  speaking  is  to  be  checked,  the  soul  is  as  much 
enslaved  as  the  body  in  a  cell  of  the  Bastille.  The  man  who 
once  feels,  nay  fancies,  this,  is  a  slave.  It  shows  as  if  the 
suspicious  secret  government  of  an  Italian  Republic  had 
replaced  the  open,  candid  government  of  the  English  laws." 

As  Thomas  Poole  well  represents  the  serious 
and  cultured  thought  of  young  England  in  that 


26 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


time,  it  is  interesting  to  read  his  judgment  on  the 
king's  execution  and  the  imminent  war. 

"  Many  thousands  of  human  beings  will  be  sacrificed  in  the 
ensuing  contest,  and  for  what  ?  To  support  three  or  four 
individuals,  called  arbitrary  kings,  in  the  situation  which  they 
have  usurped.  I  consider  every  Briton  who  loses  his  life  in 
the  war  us  much  murdered  as  the  King  of  France,  and  every 
one  who  approves  the  war,  as  signing  the  death-warrant  of 
each  soldier  or  sailor  that  falls.  .  .  .  The  excesses  in 
France  are  great  ;  but  who  are  the  authors  of  them  ?  The 
Emperor  of  Germany,  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  Mr.  Burke. 
Had  it  not  been  for  their  impertinent  interference,  I  firmly 
believe  the  King  of  France  would  be  at  this  moment  a  happy 
monarch,  and  that  people  would  be  enjoying  every  advantage 
of  political  liberty.  .  .  .  The  slave-trade,  you  will  see,  will 
not  be  abolished,  because  to  be  humane  and  honest  now  is  to 
be  a  traitor  to  the  constitution,  a  lover  of  sedition  and  licen- 
tiousness !  But  this  universal  depression  of  the  human  mind 
cannot  last  long." 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  defence  of  a  free 
press  was  undertaken  in  'England.  That  thirty 
years'  war  was  fought  and  won  on  the  works  of 
Paine.  There  were  some  "Lost  Leaders"  :  the 
king's  execution,  the  reign  of  terror,  caused  reac- 
tion in  many  a  fine  spirit  ;  but  the  rank  and  file 
followed  their  Thomas  Paine  with  a  faith  that 
crowned  heads  might  envy.  The  London  men 
knew  Paine  thoroughly.  The  treasures  of  the 
world  would  not  draw  him,  nor  any  terrors  drive 
him,  to  the  side  of  cruelty  and  inhumanity.  Their 
eye  was  upon  him.  Had  Paine,  after  the  king's 
execution,  despaired  of  the  republic  there  might 
have  ensued  some  demoralization  among  his  fol- 
lowers in  London.    But  they  saw  him  by  the  side 


1793]     AN  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  2/ 


of  the  delivered  prisoner  of  the  Bastille,  Brissot, 
an  author  well  known  in  England,  by  the  side  of 
Condorcet  and  others  of  Franklin's  honored  circle, 
engaged  in  death-struggle  with  the  fire-breathing 
draeon  called  "  The  Mountain."  That  was  the 
same  unswerving  man  they  had  been  following, 
and  to  all  accusations  against  the  revolution  their 
answer  was — Paine  is  still  there  ! 

A  reign  of  terror  in  England  followed  the  out- 
lawry of  Paine.  Twenty-four  men,  at  one  time  or 
another,  were  imprisoned,  fined,  or  transported  for 
uttering  words  concerning  abuses  such  as  now 
every  Englishman  would  use  concerning  the  same. 
Some  who  sold  Paine's  works  were  imprisoned  be- 
fore Paine's  trial,  while  the  seditious  character  of 
the  books  was  not  yet  legally  settled.  Many  were 
punished  after  the  trial,  by  both  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. Newspapers  were  punished  for  printing  ex- 
tracts, and  for  having  printed  them  before  the  trial.' 
For  this  kind  of  work  old  statutes  passed  for  other 
purposes  were  impressed,  new  statutes  framed,  until 
Fox  declared  the  Bill  of  Rights  repealed,  the  con- 

'  The  first  trial  after  Paine's,  that  of  Thomas  Spence  (February  26,  1793), 
for  selling  "  The  Rights  of  Man,"  failed  through  a  flaw  in  the  indictment, 
but  the  mistake  did  not  occur  again.  At  the  same  time  William  Holland 
was  awarded  a  year's  imprisonment  and  ;^loo  fine  for  selling  "  Letter  to  the 
Addressers."  H.  D.  Symonds,  for  publishing  "  Rights  of  Man,"  £,10  fine  and 
two  years  ;  for  "  Letter  to  the  Addressers,"  one  year,  ;^ioo  fine,  with  sure- 
ties in  £\,ooo  for  three  years,  and  imprisonment  till  the  fine  be  paid  and 
sureties  given.  April  17,  1793,  Richard  Phillips,  printer,  Leicester,  eigh- 
teen months.  May  8th,  J.  Ridgway,  London,  selling  "  Rights  of  Man," 
;^ioo  and  one  year  ;  "  Letter  to  the  Addressers,"  one  year,  £^00  fine  ;  in 
each  case  sureties  in  ;^i,ooo,  with  imprisonment  until  fines  paid  and 
sureties  given.  Richard  Peart,  "Rights"  and  "Letter,"  three  months. 
William  Belcher,  "Rights"  and  "Letter,"  three  months.  Daniel 
Holt,  ;^50,  four  years.  Messrs.  Robinson,  £2<X).  Eaton  and  Thompson, 
the  latter  in  Birmingham,  were  acquitted.    Clio  Rickman  escaped  punish- 


28 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1793 


stitution  cut  up  by  the  roots,  and  the  obedience  of 
the  people  to  such  "despotism"  no  longer  "a 
question  of  moral  obligation  and  duty,  but  of 
prudence."  ' 

From  his  safe  retreat  in  Paris  bookseller  Rick- 
man  wrote  his  impromptu  : 

"  Hail  Briton's  land  !    Hail  freedom's  shore  ! 
Far  happier  than  of  old  ; 
For  in  thy  blessed  realms  no  more 
The  Rights  of  Man  are  sold  !  " 

The  famous  town-crier  of  Bolton,  who  reported 
to  his  masters  that  he  had  been  round  that  place 
"  and  found  in  it  neither  the  rights  of  man  nor 
common  sense,"  made  a  statement  characteristic  of 
the  time.  The  aristocracy  and  gentry  had  indeed 
lost  their  humanity  and  their  sense  under  a  dis- 
graceful panic.  Their  serfs,  unable  to  read,  were 
fairly  represented  by  thpse  who,  having  burned 
Paine  in  efifigy,  asked  their  employer  if  there  was 
"  any  other  gemman  he  would  like  burnt,  for  a 

ment  by  running  over  to  Paris.  Dr.  Currie  (1793)  writes  :  "  The  prosecu- 
tions that  are  commenced  all  over  England  against  printers,  publishers,  etc., 
would  astonish  you  ;  and  most  of  these  are  for  offences  committed  many 
months  ago.  The  printer  of  the  Manchesier  Herald  has  had  seven  different 
indictments  preferred  against  him  for  paragraphs  in  his  paper  ;  and  six  differ- 
ent indictments  for  selling  or  disposing  of  six  different  copies  of  Paine, — all 
previous  to  the  trial  of  Paine.  The  man  was  opulent,  supposed  worth 
20,000  /.  ;  but  these  different  actions  will  ruin  him,  as  they  were  intended  to 
do." — "  Currie's  Life,"  i.,  p.  185.  See  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization," 
etc.,  American  ed.,  p.  352.  In  the  cases  where  "  gentlemen  "  were  found 
distributing  the  works  the  penalties  were  ferocious.  Fische  Palmer  was 
sentenced  to  seven  years'  transportation.  Thomas  Muir,  for  advising  per- 
sons to  read  "  the  works  of  that  wretched  outcast  Paine"  (the  Lord  Advo- 
cate's words)  was  sentenced  to  fourteen  years'  transportation.  This  sentence 
was  hissed.  The  tipstaff  being  ordered  to  take  those  who  hissed  into  cus- 
tody, replied  :  "  My  lord,  they  're  all  hissing." 

'  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  xxxii.,  p.  383. 


1793]  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  29 


glass  o'  beer."  The  White  Bear  (now  replaced  by 
the  Criterion  Restaurant)  no  longer  knew  its  little 
circle  of  radicals.  A  symbol  of  how  they  were 
trampled  out  is  discoverable  in  the  "  T.  P."  shoe- 
nails.  These  nails,  with  heads  so  lettered,  were  in 
great  request  among  the  gentry,  who  had  only  to 
hold  up  their  boot-soles  to  show  how  they  were 
trampling  on  Tom  Paine  and  his  principles.  This 
at  any  rate  was  accurate.  Manufacturers  of  vases 
also  devised  ceramic  anathemas.' 

In  all  of  this  may  be  read  the  frantic  fears  of  the 
King  and  aristocracy  which  were  driving  the  Min- 
istry to  make  good  Paine's  aphorism,  "  There  is  no 
English  Constitution."  An  English  Constitution 
was,  however,  in  process  of  formation, — in  prisons, 
in  secret  conclaves,  in  lands  of  exile,  and  chiefly  in 
Paine's  small  room  in  Paris.  Even  in  that  time  of 
Parisian  turbulence  and  peril  the  hunted  liberals  of 

'  There  are  two  Paine  pitchers  in  the  Museum  at  Brighton,  England. 
Both  were  made  at  Leeds,  one  probably  before  Paine's  trial,  since  it  pre- 
sents a  respectable  full-length  portrait,  holding  in  his  hand  a  book,  and 
beneath,  the  words  :  "  Mr.  Thomas  Paine,  Author  of  The  Rights  of  Man." 
The  other  shows  a  serpent  with  Paine's  head,  two  sides  being  adorned  with 
the  following  lines  : 

"  God  save  the  King,  and  all  his  subjects  too, 
Likewise  his  forces  and  commanders  true. 
May  he  their  rights  forever  hence  Maintain 
Against  all  strife  occasioned  by  Tom  Paine." 

"  Prithee  Tom  Paine  why  wilt  thou  meddling  be 
In  others'  business  which  concerns  not  thee  ; 
For  while  thereon  thou  dost  extend  thy  cares 
Thou  dost  at  home  neglect  thine  own  affairs." 

"  God  save  the  King  !  " 


"  Observe  the  wicked  and  malicious  man 
Projecting  all  the  mischief  that  he  can." 


30 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1792 


England  found  more  security  in  France  than  in 
their  native  land.'  For  the  eyes  of  the  English 
reformer  of  that  period,  seeing  events  from  prison 
or  exile,  there  was  a  perspective  such  as  time  has 
now  supplied  to  the  historian.  It  is  still  difficult  to 
distribute  the  burden  of  shame  fairly.  Pitt  was 
unquestionably  at  first  anxious  to  avoid  war.  That 
the  King  was  determined  on  the  war  is  certain  ;  he 
refused  to  notice  Wilberforce  when  he  appeared  at 
court  after  his  separation  from  Pitt  on  that  point. 

'  When  William  Pitt  died  in  1806, — crushed  under  disclosures  in  the  im- 
peachment of  Lord  Melville, — the  verdict  of  many  sufferers  was  expressed 
in  an  "  Epitaph  Impromptu"  (MS.)  found  among  the  papers  of  Thomas 
Rickman.    It  has  some  historic  interest. 

"  Reader  !  with  eye  indignant  view  this  bier  ; 
The  foe  of  all  the  human  race  lies  here. 
With  talents  small,  and  those  directed,  too, 
Virtue  and  truth  and  wisdom  to  subdue, 
He  lived  to  every  noble  motive  blind, 
And  died,  the  execration  of  mankind. 

"  Millions  were  butchered  by  his  damned  plan 
To  violate  each  sacred  right  of  man  ; 
Exulting  he  o'er  earth  each  misery  hurled. 
And  joyed  to  drench  in  tears  and  blood,  the  world. 

"  Myriads  of  beings  wretched  he  has  made 
By  desolating  war,  his  favourite  trade. 
Who,  robbed  of  friends  and  dearest  ties,  are  left 
Of  every  hope  and  happiness  bereft. 

"  In  private  life  made  up  of  fuss  and  pride, 
Not  e'en  his  vices  leaned  to  virtue's  side  ; 
Unsound,  corrupt,  and  rotten  at  the  core. 
His  cold  and  scoundrel  heart  was  black  all  o'er  ; 
Nor  did  one  passion  ever  move  his  mind 
That  bent  towards  the  tender,  warm,  and  kind. 

"  Tyrant,  and  friend  to  war  !  we  hail  the  day 

When  Death,  to  bless  mankind,  made  thee  his  prey, 

And  rid  the  earth  of  all  could  earth  disgrace, — 

The  foulest,  bloodiest  scourge  of  man's  oppressed  race." 


1793]     AN  OUTLAWED  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  3I 


But  the  three  attempts  on  his  Hfe,  and  his  mental 
infirmity,  may  be  pleaded  for  George  III.  Paine, 
in  his  letter  to  Dundas,  wrote  "  Madjesty  "  ;  when 
Rickman  objected,  he  said  :  "  Let  it  stand."  And  it 
stands  now  as  the  best  apology  for  the  King,  while 
it  rolls  on  Pitt's  memory  the  guilt  of  a  twenty-two 
years'  war  for  the  subjugation  of  thought  and  free- 
dom. In  that  last  struggle  of  the  barbarism  sur- 
viving in  civilization,  it  was  shown  that  the  madness 
of  a  populace  was  easily  distanced  by  the  cruelty 
of  courts.  Robespierre  and  Marat  were  humanita- 
rian beside  George  and  his  Ministers  ;  the  Reign 
of  Terror,  and  all  the  massacres  of  the  French 
Revolution  put  together,  were  child's-play  com- 
pared with  the  anguish  and  horrors  spread  through 
Europe  by  a  war  whose  pretext  was  an  execution 
England  might  have  prevented. 


CHAPTER  III. 

REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 

The  French  revolutionists  have  long  borne  re- 
sponsibility for  the  first  declaration  of  war  in  1 793. 
But  from  December  13,  1792,  when  the  Painophobia 
Parliament  began  its  debates,  to  February  ist,  when 
France  proclaimed  itself  at  war  with  England, 
the  British  government  had  done  little  else  than 
declare  war — and  prepare  war — against  France. 
Pitt,  having  to  be  re-elected,  managed  to  keep 
away  from  Parliament  for  several  days  at  its  open- 
ing, and  the  onslaught  was  assumed  by  Burke.  He 
began  by  heaping  insults  on  France.  On  Decem- 
ber 15th  he  boasted  that  he  had  not  been  cajoled 
by  promise  of  promotion  or  pension,  though  he 
presently,  on  the  same  evening,  took  his  seat  for 
the  first  time  on  the  Treasury  bench.  In  the 
"Parliamentary  History"  (vols.  xxx.  and  xxxi.) 
may  be  found  Burke's  epithets  on  France, — -the 
"republic  of  assassins,"  "Cannibal  Castle,"  "na- 
tion of  murderers,"  "  gang  of  plunderers,"  "  mur- 
derous atheists,"  "  miscreants,"  "  scum  of  the 
earth."  His  vocabulary  grew  in  grossness,  of 
course,  after  the  King's  execution  and  the  dec- 
laration of  war,  but  from  the  first  it  was  ribaldry 
and  abuse.    And  this  did  not  come  from  a  private 


1793] 


REVOLUTION'  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


33 


member,  but  from  the  Treasury  bench.  He  was 
supported  by  a  furious  majority  which  stopped  at 
no  injustice.  Thus  the  Convention  was  burdened 
with  guilt  of  the  September  massacres,  though  it 
was  not  then  in  existence.  Paine's  works  being 
denounced,  Erskine  reminded  the  House  of  the 
illegality  of  so  influencing  a  trial  not  yet  begun. 
He  was  not  listened  to.  Fox  and  fifty  other  earnest 
men  had  a  serious  purpose  of  trying  to  save  the 
King's  life,  and  proposed  to  negotiate  with  the 
Convention.  Burke  fairly  foamed  at  the  motions 
to  that  end,  made  by  Fox  and  Lord  Lansdowne. 
What,  negotiate  with  such  villains  !  To  whom  is 
our  aofent  to  be  accredited  ?  Burke  draws  a  comic 
picture  of  the  English  ambassador  entering  the 
Convention,  and,  when  he  announces  himself  as 
from  "  George  Third,  by  the  grace  of  God,"  de- 
nounced by  Paine.  "  Are  we  to  humble  ourselves 
before  Judge  Paine?"  At  this  point  Whetstone 
made  a  disturbance  and  was  named.  There  were 
some  who  found  Burke's  trifling  intolerable.  Mr. 
W.  Smith  reminded  the  House  that  Cromwell's 
ambassadors  had  been  received  by  Louis  XIV. 
Fox  drew  a  parallel  between  the  contemptuous 
terms  used  toward  the  French,  and  others  about 
"  Hancock  and  his  crew,"  with  whom  Burke  ad- 
vised treaty,  and  with  whom  His  Majesty  did  treat. 
All  this  was  answered  by  further  insults  to  France, 
these  corresponding  with  a  series  of  practical  inju- 
ries. Lord  Gower  had  been  recalled  August  17th, 
after  the  formation  of  a  republic,  and  all  inter- 
course with  the  French  Minister  in  London,  Chau- 
velin,  was  terminated.     In  violation  of  the  treaty 

Vol.  II.— 3 


34 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


of  1786,  the  agents  of  France  were  refused  permis- 
sion to  purchase  grain  and  arms  in  England,  and 
their  vessels  loaded  with  provisions  seized.  The 
circulation  of  French  bonds,  issued  in  1790,  was 
prohibited  in  England.  A  coalition  had  been 
formed  with  the  enemies  of  France,  the  Emperor 
of  Austria  and  the  King  of  Prussia.  Finally,  on 
the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.,  Chauvelin  was  or- 
dered (January  24th)  to  leave  England  in  eight 
days.  Talleyrand  remained,  but  Chauvelin  was 
kicked  out  of  the  country,  so  to  say,  simply  because 
the  Convention  had  recognized  him.  This  appeared 
a  plain  casus  belli,  and  was  answered  by  the  declara- 
tion of  the  Convention  in  that  sense  (February  ist), 
which  England  answered  ten  days  later.' 

In  all  this  Paine  recognized  the  hand  of  Burke. 
While  his  adherents  in  England,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  findinof  in  Pitt  a  successor  to  Satan,  there  is  a 
notable  absence  from  Paine's  writincrs  and  letters 

o 

of.  any  such  animosity  towards  that  Minister.  He 

'  "  It  was  stipulated  in  the  treaty  of  commerce  between  France  and  Eng- 
land, concluded  at  Paris  [17S6]  that  the  sending  away  an  ambassador  by 
either  party,  should  be  taken  as  an  act  of  hostility  by  the  other  party.  The 
declaration  of  war  (February,  1 793)  by  the  Convention  .  .  .  was  made 
in  exact  conformity  to  this  article  in  the  treaty  ;  for  it  was  not  a  declaration 
of  war  against  England,  but  a  declaration  that  the  French  republic  is  in  war 
with  England  ;  the  first  act  of  hostility  having  been  committed  by  England. 
The  declaration  was  made  on  Chauvelin's  return  to  France,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  it." — Paine's  "Address  to  the  People  of  France"  (1797).  The 
words  of  the  declaration  of  war,  following  the  list  of  injuries,  are  :  "  La 
Convention  Nationale  declare,  au  nom  de  la  nation  Frangaise,  qu'attendu 
les  actes  multiplies  at  d'agressions  ci-dessus  mentionnes,  la  republique 
Franjaise  est  en  guerre  avec  le  roi  d'Angleterre."  The  solemn  protest  of 
Lords  Lauderdale,  Lansdowne,  and  Derby,  February  ist,  against  the  address 
in  ansv/er  to  the  royal  message,  before  France  had  spoken,  regards  that 
address  as  a  demonstration  of  universal  war.  The  facts  and  the  situation 
are  carefully  set  forth  by  Louis  Blanc,  "  Histoire  de  la  Revolution,"  tome 
viii.,  p.  93  seq. 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION.  35 


regarded  Pitt  as  a  victim.  "  The  father  of  Pitt," 
he  once  wrote,  "when  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  exclaiming  one  day,  during  a  former 
war,  against  the  enormous  and  ruinous  expense  of 
German  connections,  as  the  offspring  of  the  Han- 
over succession,  and  borrowing  a  metaphor  from 
the  story  of  Prometheus,  cried  out :  '  Thus,  Hke 
Prometheus,  is  Britain  chained  to  the  barren  rock 
of  Hanover,  whilst  the  imperial  eagle  preys  upon 
her  vitals.'"  It  is  probable  that  on  the  intima- 
tions from  Pitt,  at  the  close  of  i  792,  of  his  desire 
for  private  consultations  with  friendly  Frenchmen, 
Paine  entered  into  the  honorable  though  unauthor- 
ized conspiracy  for  peace  which  was  terminated  by 
the  expulsion  of  Chauvelin.  In  the  light  of  later 
events,  and  the  desertion  of  Dumouriez,  these 
overtures  of  Pitt  made  through  Talleyrand  (then  in 
London)  were  regarded  by  the  French  leaders,  and 
are  still  regarded  by  French  writers,  as  treacherous. 
But  no  sufficient  reason  is  given  for  doubting 
Pitt's  good  faith  in  that  matter.  Writing  to  the 
President  (Washington),  December  28,  1792,  the 
American  Minister,  Gouverneur  Morris,  states  the 
British  proposal  to  be  : 

"  France  shall  deliver  the  royal  family  to  such  branch  of 
the  Bourbons  as  the  King  may  choose,  and  shall  recall  her 
troops  from  the  countries  they  now  occupy.  In  this  event 
Britain  will  send  hither  a  Minister  and  acknowledge  the  Re- 
public, and  mediate  a  peace  with  the  Emperor  and  King  of 
Prussia.  I  have  several  reasons  to  believe  that  this  informa- 
tion is  not  far  from  the  truth." 

It  is  true  that  Pitt  had  no  agent  in  France  whom 
he  might  not  have  disavowed,  and  that  after  the 


36 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


fury  with  which  the  Painophobia  Parliament,  under 
lead  of  Burke,  inspired  by  the  King,  had  opened, 
could  hardly  have  maintained  any  peaceful  terms. 
Nevertheless,  the  friends  of  peace  in  France  se- 
cretly acted  on  this  information,  which  Gouverneur 
Morris  no  doubt  received  from  Paine.  A  grand 
dinner  was  given  by  Paine,  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville, 
to  Dumouriez,  where  this  brilliant  General  met 
Brissot,  Condorcet,  Santerre,  and  several  eminent 
English  radicals,  among  them  Sampson  Perry.  At 
this  time  it  was  proposed  to  send  Dumouriez  se- 
cretly to  London,  to  negotiate  with  Pitt,  but  this 
was  abandoned.  Maret  went,  and  he  found  Pitt 
gracious  and  pacific.  Chauvelin,  however,  advised 
the  French  government  of  this  illicit  negotiation, 
and  Maret  was  ordered  to  return.  Such  was  the 
situation  when  Louis  was  executed.  That  execu- 
tion, as  we  have  seen,  might  have  been  prevented 
had  Pitt  provided  the  money  ;  but  it  need  not  be 
supposed  that,  with  Burke  now  on  the  Treasury 
bench,  the  refusal  is  to  be  ascribed  to  anything 
more  than  his  inability  to  cope  with  his  own  ma- 
jority, whom  the  King  was  patronizing.  So  com- 
pletely convinced  of  Pitt's  pacific  disposition  were 
Maret  and  his  allies  in  France  that  the  clandestine 
ambassador  again  departed  for  London.  But  on 
arriving  at  Dover,  he  learned  that  Chauvelin  had 
been  expelled,  and  at  once  returned  to  France.' 

Paine  now  held  more  firmly  than  ever  the  first 
article  of  his  faith  as  to  practical  politics  :  the  chief 

'  See  Louis  Blanc's  "  Histoire,"  etc.,  tome  viii.,  p.  loo,  for  the  principal 
authorities  concerning  this  incident. — Annual  Register,  1793,  ch.  vi.  ; 
"  Memoires  tire's  des  papiers  d'un  homme  d'Etat.,"  ii.,  p.  157  ;  "  Memo'ires 
de  Dumouriez,"  t.  iii.,  p.  384. 


1793]  REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION.  37 

task  of  republicanism  is  to  break  the  Anglo-Ger- 
man sceptre.  France  is  now  committed  to  war  ; 
it  must  be  elevated  to  that  European  aim.  Lord 
North  and  America  reappear  in  Burke  and  France. 

Meanwhile  what  is  said  of  Britain  in  his  "  Rights 
of  Man  "  was  now  more  terribly  true  of  France — 
it  had  no  Constitution.  The  Committee  on  the 
Constitution  had  declared  themselves  ready  to  re- 
port early  in  the  winter,  but  the  Mountaineers 
managed  that  the  matter  should  be  postponed 
until  after  the  King's  trial.  As  an  American  who 
prized  his  citizenship,  Paine  felt  chagrined  and 
compromised  at  being  compelled  to  act  as  a  legis- 
lator and  a  judge  because  of  his  connection  with  a 
Convention  elected  for  the  purpose  of  framing  a 
legislative  and  judicial  machinery.  He  and  Con- 
dorcet  continued  to  add  touches  to  this  Constitu- 
tion, the  Committee  approving,  and  on  the  first 
opportunity  it  was  reported  again.  This  was  Feb- 
ruary 15,  1793.  But,  says  the  Moniteuj',  "the 
struggles  between  the  Girondins  and  the  Mountain 
caused  the  examination  and  discussion  to  be  post- 
poned."   It  was,  however,  distributed. 

Gouverneur  Morris,  in  a  letter  to  Jefferson 
(March  7th),  says  this  Constitution  "was  read  to 
the  Convention,  but  I  learnt  the  next  morning  that 
a  Council  had  been  held  on  it  overnight,  by  which 
it  was  condemned."  Here  is  evidence  in  our 
American  archives  of  a  meeting  or  "  Council " 
condemning  the  Constitution  on  the  night  of  its 
submission.  It  must  have  been  secret,  for  it  does 
not  appear  in  French  histories,  so  far  as  I  can  dis- 
cover.   D.urand  de  Maillane  says  that  "  the  exclu- 


38 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


sion  of  Robespierre  and  Couthon  from  this  eminent 
task  [framing  a  Constitution]  was  a  new  matter  for 
discontent  and  jealousy  against  the  party  of  Pe- 
tion  " — a  leading  Girondin, — and  that  Robespierre 
and  his  men  desired  "  to  render  their  work  use- 
less." '  No  indication  of  this  secret  condemnation 
of  the  Paine-Condorcet  Constitution,  by  a  con- 
clave appeared  on  March  ist,  when  the  docu- 
ment was  again  submitted.  The  Convention  now 
set  April  15th  for  its  discussion,  and  the  Moun- 
taineers fixed  that  day  for  the  opening  of  their 
attack  on  the  Girondins.  The  Mayor  of  Paris  ap- 
peared with  a  petition,  adopted  by  the  Communal 
Council  of  the  thirty-five  sections  of  Paris,  for  the 
arrest  of  twenty-two  members  of  the  Convention, 
as  slanderers  of  Paris, — "  presenting  the  Parisians 
to  Europe  as  men  of  blood," — friends  of  Roland, 
accomplices  of  the  traitor  Dumouriez,  enemies  of 
the  clubs.  The  deputies  named  were  :  Brissot, 
Guadet,  Vergniaud,  Gensonne,  Grangeneuve,  Buzot, 
Barbaroux,  Salles,  Biroteau,  Pontecoulant,  Petion, 
Lanjuinais,  Valaze,  Hardy,  Louvet,  Lehardy,  Gor- 
sas,  Abbe  Fauchet,  Lanthenas,  Lasource,  Valady, 
Chambon.  Of  this  list  five  were  members  of  the 
Committee  pn  the  Constitution,  and  two  supple- 
mentary members."  Besides  this,  two  of  the 
arraigned — Louvet  and  Lasource — had  been  espe- 
cially active  in  pressing  forward  the  Constitution. 
The  Mountaineers  turned  the  discord  they  thus 

'  "  Histoire  de  la  Convention  Nationale,"  p.  50.  Durand-Maillane  was 
"  the  silent  member"  of  the  Convention,  but  a  careful  observer  and  well- 
informed  witness.  I  follow  him  and  Louis  Blanc  in  relating  the  fate  of  the 
Paine-Condorcet  Constitution. 

^  See  vol.  i.,  p.  357. 


1793] 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


39 


caused  into  a  reason  for  deferring  discussion  of  the 
Constitution.  They  declared  also  that  important 
members  were  absent,  levying  troops,  and  espe- 
cially that  Marat's  trial  had  been  ordered.  The 
discussion  on  the  petition  against  the  Girondins, 
and  whether  the  Constitution  should  be  considered, 
proceeded  together  for  two  days,  when  the  Moun- 
taineers were  routed  on  both  issues.  The  Conven- 
tion returned  the  petition  to  the  Mayor,  pronouncing 
it  "  calumnious,"  and  it  made  the  Constitution  the 
order  of  the  day.  Robespierre,  according  to  Du- 
rand-Maillane,  showed  much  spite  at  this  defeat. 
He  adroitly  secured  a  decision  that  the  preliminary 
"  Declaration  of  Rights  "  should  be  discussed  first, 
as  there  could  be  endless  talk  on  those  generalities.^ 

'  This  Declaration,  submitted  by  Condorcet,  April  17th,  being  largely  the 
work  of  Paine,  is  here  translated  :  The  end  of  all  union  of  men  in  society 
being  maintenance  of  their  natural  rights,  civil  and  political,  these  rights 
should  be  the  basis  of  the  social  pact  :  their  recognition  and  their  declaration 
ought  to  precede  the  Constitution  which  secures  and  guarantees  them.  I. 
The  natural  rights,  civil  and  political,  of  men  are  liberty,  equality,  security, 
property,  social  protection,  and  resistance  to  oppression.  2.  Liberty  con- 
sists in  the  power  to  do  whatever  is  not  contrary  to  the  rights  of  others  ; 
thus,  the  natural  rights  of  each  man  has  no  limits  other  than  those  which 
secure  to  other  members  of  society  enjoyment  of  the  same  rights.  3.  The 
preservation  of  liberty  depends  on  the  sovereignty  of  the  Law,  which  is 
the  expression  of  the  general  will.  Nothing  unforbidden  by  law  can  be 
impeached,  and  none  may  be  constrained  to  do  what  it  does  not  command. 
4.  Every  man  is  free  to  make  known  his  thought  and  his  opinions.  5. 
Freedom  of  the  press  (and  every  other  means  of  publishing  one's  thoughts) 
cannot  be  prohibited,  suspended,  or  limited.  6.  Every  citizen  shall  be 
free  in  the  exercise  of  his  worship  \culte\.  7.  Equality  consists  in  the 
power  of  each  to  enjoy  the  same  rights.  8.  The  Law  should  be  equal 
for  all,  whether  in  recompense,  punishment,  or  restraint,  g.  All  citizens 
are  admissible  to  all  public  positions,  employments,  and  functions.  Free 
peoples  can  recognise  no  grounds  of  preference  except  talents  and  virtues. 
10.  Security  consists  in  the  protection  accorded  by  society  to  each  citizen 
for  the  preservation  of  his  person,  property,  and  rights.  11.  None  should 
be  sued,  accused,  arrested,  or  detained,  save  in  cases  determined  by  the  law, 
and  in  accordance  with  forms  prescribed  by  it.    Every  other  act  against  a 


40 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


It  now  appears  plain  that  Robespierre,  Marat, 
and  the  Mountaineers  generally  were  resolved  that 
there  should  be  no  new  government.  The  differ- 
ence between  them  and  their  opponents  was  funda- 
mental :  to  them  the  Revolution  was  an  end,  to  the 
others  a  means.  The  Convention  was  a  purely 
revolutionary  body.  It  had  arbitrarily  absorbed  all 
legislative  and  judicial  functions,  exercising  them 
without  responsibility  to  any  code  or  constitution. 
For  instance,  in  State  Trials  French  law  required 
three  fourths  of  the  voices  for  condemnation  ;  had 
the  rule  been  followed  Louis  XVI.  would  not  have 
perished.  Lanjuinais  had  pressed  the  point,  and 
it  was  answered  that  the  sentence  on  Louis  was 
political,  for  the  interest  of  the  State  ;  salus  populi 
suprema  lex.    This  implied  that  the  Convention, 

citizen  is  arbitrary  and  null.  12.  Those  who  solicit,  promote,  sign,  execute 
or  cause  to  be  executed  such  arbitrary  acts  are  culpable,  and  should  be 
punished.  13.  Citizens  against  whom  the  execution  of  such  acts  is  attempted 
have  the  right  of  resistance  by  force.  Every  citizen  summoned  or  arrested 
by  the  authority  of  law,  and  in  the  forms  prescribed  by  it,  should  instantly 
obey  ;  he  renders  himself  guilty  by  resistance.  14.  Every  man  being  pre- 
sumed innocent  until  declared  guilty,  should  his  arrest  be  judged  indis- 
pensable, all  rigor  not  necessary  to  secure  his  person  should  be  severely 
repressed  by  law.  15.  None  should  be  punished  save  in  virtue  of  a  law  es- 
tablished and  promulgated  previous  to  the  offence,  and  legally  applied.  16. 
A  law  that  should  punish  offences  committed  before  its  existence  would 
be  an  arbitrary  Act.  Retroactive  effect  given  to  any  law  is  a  crime.  17. 
Law  should  award  only  penalties  strictly  and  evidently  necessary  to  the  gen- 
eral security  ;  they  should  be  proportioned  to  the  offence  and  useful  to 
society.  18.  The  right  of  property  consists  in  a  man's  being  master  in  the 
disposal,  at  his  will,  of  his  goods,  capital,  income,  and  industry.  19.  No 
kind  of  work,  commerce,  or  culture  can  be  interdicted  for  any  one  ;  he  may 
make,  sell,  and  transport  every  species  of  production.  20.  Every  man  may 
engage  his  services,  and  his  time  ;  but  he  cannot  sell  himself  ;  his  person  is 
not  an  alienable  property.  21.  No  one  may  be  deprived  of  the  least  portion 
of  his  property  without  his  consent,  unless  because  of  public  necessity, 
legally  determined,  exacted  openly,  and  under  the  condition  of  a  just  indem- 
nity in  advance.  22.  No  tax  shall  be  established  except  for  the  general 
utility,  and  to  relieve  public  needs.  All  citizens  have  the  right  to  co-operate. 


17931 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


41 


turning  aside  from  its  appointed  functions,  had,  in 
anticipation  of  the  judicial  forms  it  meant  to  estab- 
Hsh,  constituted  itself  into  a  Vigilance  Committee 
to  save  the  State  in  an  emergency.  But  it  never 
turned  back  again  to  its  proper  work.  Now  when 
the  Constitution  was  framed,  every  possible  ob- 
struction was  placed  in  the  way  of  its  adoption, 
which  would  have  relegated  most  of  the  Mountain- 
eers to  private  life. 

Robespierre  and  Marat  were  in  luck.  The  Paine- 
Condorcet  Constitution  omitted  all  mention  of  a 
Deity.  Here  was  the  immemorial  and  infallible 
recipe  for  discord,  of  which  Robespierre  made  the 
most.  He  took  the  "Supreme  Being"  under  his 
protection  ;  he  also  took  morality  under  his  protec- 
tion, insisting  that  the  Paine-Condorcet  Constitution 

personally  or  by  their  representatives,  in  the  establishment  of  public  con- 
tributions. 23.  Instruction  is  the  need  of  all,  and  society  owes  it  equally 
to  all  its  members.  24.  Public  succors  are  a  sacred  debt  of  society,  and  it 
is  for  the  law  to  determine  their  extent  and  application.  25.  The  social 
guarantee  of  the  rights  of  man  rests  on  the  national  sovereignty.  26. 
This  sovereignty  is  one,  indivisible,  imprescriptible,  and  inalienable.  27. 
It  resides  essentially  in  the  whole  people,  and  each  citizen  has  an  equal 
right  to  co-operate  in  its  exercise.  2S.  No  partial  assemblage  of  citizens, 
and  no  individual  may  attribute  to  themselves  sovereignty,  to  exercise 
authority  and  fill  any  public  function,  without  a  formal  delegation  by  the 
law.  29.  Social  security  cannot  exist  where  the  limits  of  public  administra- 
tion are  not  clearly  determined  by  law,  and  where  the  responsibility  of  all 
public  functionaries  is  not  assured.  30.  All  citizens  are  bound  to  co-ope- 
rate in  this  guarantee,  and  to  enforce  the  law  when  summoned  in  its 
name.  31.  Men  united  in  society  should  have  legal  means  of  resisting 
oppression.  In  every  free  government  the  mode  of  resisting  different  acts 
of  oppression  should  be  regulated  by  the  Constitution.  32.  It  is  oppression 
when  a  law  violates  the  natural  rights,  civil  and  political,  which  it 
should  ensure.  It  is  oppression  when  the  law  is  violated  by  public  offi- 
cials in  its  application  to  individual  cases.  It  is  oppression  when  arbi- 
trary acts  violate  the  rights  of  citizens  against  the  terms  of  the  law.  33.  A 
people  has  always  the  right  to  revise,  reform,  and  change  its  Constitu- 
tion. One  generation  has  no  right  to  bind  future  generations,  and  all 
heredity  in  offices  is  absurd  and  tyrannical. 


42 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


gave  liberty  even  to  illicit  traffic.  While  these  dis- 
cussions were  going  on  Marat  gained  his  triumphant 
acquittal  from  the  charges  made  against  him  by  the 
Girondins.  This  damaging  blow  further  demoral- 
ized the  majority  which  was  eager  for  the  Constitu- 
tion. By  violence,  by  appeals  against  atheism,  by 
all  crafty  tactics,  the  Mountaineers  secured  recom- 
mitment of  the  Constitution.  To  the  Committee 
were  added  Herault  de  Sechelles,  Ramel,  Mathieu, 
Couthon,  Saint-Just, — all  from  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety.  The  Constitution  as  committed 
was  the  most  republican  document  of  the  kind  ever 
drafted,  as  rernade  it  was  a  revolutionary  instru- 
ment ;  but  its  preamble  read  :  "  In  the  presence 
and  under  the  guidance  {aztspices)  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  the  French  People  declare,"  etc. 

God  was  in  the  Constitution  ;  but  when  it  was 
reported  (June  loth)  the  Mountaineers  had  their 
opponents  cn  route  for  the  scaffold.  '  The  arraign- 
ment of  the  twenty-two,  declared  by  the  Conven- 
tion "  calumnious  "  six  weeks  before,  was  approved 
on  June  2d.  It  was  therefore  easy  to  pass  such  a 
constitution  as  the  victors  desired.  Some  had 
suggested,  during  the  theological  debate,  that 
"  many  crimes  had  been  sanctioned  by  this 
King  of  kings," — no  doubt  with  emphasis  on  the 
discredited  royal  name.  Robespierre  identified 
his  "  Supreme  Being "  with  nature,  of  whose 
ferocities  the  poor  Girondins  soon  had  tragical 
evidence.^ 

'  "  Les  rois,  les  aristocrates,  les  tyrants  qu'ils  soient,  sont  des  esclaves 
revoltes  centre  le  souverain  de  la  terre,  qui  est  le  genre  humain,  et  contra 
le  legislateur  de  I'univers,  qui  est  la  nature." — Robespierre's  final  article  of 
"  Rights,"  adopted  by  the  Jacobins,  April  21,  1793.  Should  not  slaves  revolt? 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION: 


43 


The  Constitution  was  adopted  by  the  Conven- 
tion on  June  25th  ;  it  was  ratified  by  the  Com- 
munes August  loth.  When  it  was  proposed  to 
organize  a  government  under  it,  and  dissolve  the 
Convention,  Robespierre  remarked  :  l^hat  sounds 
like  a  suggestion  of  Pitt  !  Thereupon  the  Consti- 
tution was  suspended  until  universal  peace,  and 
the  Revolution  superseded  the  Republic  as  end 
and  aim  of  France.^ 

Some  have  ascribed  to  Robespierre  a  phrase  he 
borrowed,  on  one  occasion,  from  Voltaire,  Si  Dieu 
nexistait  pas,  il  faudrait  1'  inventer.  Robespierre's 
originality  was  that  he  did  invent  a  god,  made  in 
his  own  image,  and  to  that  idol  offered  human  sac- 
rifices,— beginning  with  his  own  humanity.  That 
he  was  genuinely  superstitious  is  suggested  by  the 
plausibility  with  which  his  enemies  connected  him 

'  "  I  observed  in  the  french  revolutions  that  they  always  proceeded  by 
stages,  and  made  each  stage  a  stepping  stone  to  another.  The  Convention, 
to  amuse  the  people,  voted  a  constitution,  and  then  voted  to  suspend  the 
practical  establishment  of  it  till  after  the  war,  and  in  the  meantime  to  carry 
on  a  revolutionary  government.  When  Robespierre  fell  they  proposed 
bringing  forward  the  suspended  Constitution,  and  apparently  for  this  pur- 
pose appointed  a  committee  to  frame  what  they  called  organic  laws,  and  these 
organic  laws  turned  out  to  be  a  new  Constitution  (the  Directory  Constitution 
which  was  in  general  a  good  one).  When  Bonaparte  overthrew  this  Consti- 
tution he  got  himself  appointed  first  Consul  for  ten  years,  then  for  life,  and 
now  Emperor  with  an  hereditary  succession." — Paine  to  Jefferson.  MS. 
(Dec.  27,  1804).  The  Paine-Condorcet  Constitution  is  printed  in  CEiivres 
Completes  de  Condorcet,  vol.  xviii.  That  which  superseded  it  may  be  read 
(the  Declaration  of  Rights  omitted)  in  the  "Constitutional  History  of 
France.  By  Henry  C.  Lockwood."  (New  York,  l8go).  It  is,  inter 
alia,  a  sufficient  reason  for  describing  the  latter  as  revolutionary,  that  it 
provides  that  a  Convention,  elected  by  a  majority  of  the  departments,  and 
a  tenth  part  of  the  primaries,  to  revise  or  alter  the  Constitution,  shall  be 
"  formed  in  like  manner  as  the  legislatures,  and  unite  in  itself  the  highest 
power."  In  other  words,  instead  of  being  limited  to  constitutional  revision, 
may  exercise  all  legislative  and  other  functions,  just  as  the  e.xisting  Con- 
vention was  doing. 


t 


44  TNE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  Li793 

with  the  "  prophetess,"  Catharine  Theot,  who 
pronounced  him  the  reincarnate  "  Word  of  God." 
Certain  it  is  that  he  revived  the  old  forces  of 
fanaticism,  and  largely  by  their  aid  crushed  the 
Girondins,  who  were  rationalists.  Condorcet  had 
said  that  in  preparing  a  Constitution  for  France  they 
had  not  consulted  Numa's  nymph  or  the  pigeon  of 
Mahomet ;  they  had  found  human  reason  sufficient. 

Corruption  of  best  is  worst.  In  the  proportion 
that  a  humane  deity  would  be  a  potent  sanction  for 
righteous  laws,  an  inhuman  deity  is  the  sanction  of 
inhuman  laws.  He  who  summoned  a  nature-god 
to  the  French  Convention  let  loose  the  scourge  on 
France.  Nature  inflicts  on  mankind,  every  day,  a 
hundred-fold  the  agonies  of  the  Reign  of  Terror. 
Robespierre  had  projected  into  nature  a  senti- 
mental conception  of  his  own,  but  he  had  no  power 
to  master  the  force  he  had  evoked.  That  had  to 
take  the  shape  of  the  nature-gods  of  all  time,  and 
straightway  dragged  the  Convention  down  to  the 
savage  plane  where  discussion  becomes  an  exchange 
of  thunder-stones.  Such  relapses  are  not  very 
difficult  to  effect  in  revolutionary  times.  By  kill- 
ing off  sceptical  variations,  and  cultivating  con- 
formity, a  cerebral  evolution  proceeded  for  ages 
by  which  kind-hearted  people  were  led  to  wor- 
ship jealous  and  cruel  gods,  who,  should  they 
appear  in  human  form,  would  be  dealt  with  as 
criminals.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  nature- 
god  does  not  so  appear ;  it  is  represented  in 
euphemisms,  while  at  the  same  time  it  coerces 
the  social  and  human  standard.  Since  the  nature- 
god  punishes  hereditarily,  kills  every  man  at  last, 


1793] 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


45 


and  so  tortures  millions  that  the  suggestion  of  hell 
seems  only  too  probable  to  those  sufferers,  a  polit- 
ical system  formed  under  the  legitimacy  of  such  a 
superstition  must  subordinate  crimes  to  sins,  regard 
atheism  as  worse  than  theft,  acknowledge  the  arbi- 
trary principle,  and  confuse  retaliation  with  justice. 
From  the  time  that  the  shekinah  of  the  nature-god 
settled  on  the  Mountain,  offences  were  measured, 
not  by  their  injury  to  man,  but  as  insults  to  the 
Mountain-god,  or  to  his  anointed.  In  the  mys- 
terious counsels  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
the  rewards  are  as  little  harmonious  with  the 
human  standard  as  in  the  ages  when  sabbath- 
breaking  and  murder  met  the  same  doom.  Under 
the  paralyzing  splendor  of  a  divine  authority,  any 
such  considerations  as  the  suffering  or  death  of 
men  become  petty.  The  average  Mountaineer  was 
unable  to  imagine  that  those  who  tried  to  save 
Louis  had  other  than  royalist  motives.  In  this 
Armageddon  the  Girondins  were  far  above  their 
opponents  in  humanity  and  intelligence,  but  the 
conditions  did  not  admit  of  an  entire  adherence  to 
their  honorable  weapons  of  argument  and  elo- 
quence. They  too  often  used  deadly  threats, 
without  meaning  them ;  the  Mountaineers,  who 
did  mean  them,  took  such  phrases  seriously,  and 
believed  the  struggle  to  be  one  of  life  and  death. 
Such  phenomena  of  bloodshed,  connected  with 
absurdly  inadequate  causes,  are  known  in  history 
only  where  gods  mingle  in  the  fray.  Reign  of 
Terror  ?  What  is  the  ancient  reign  of  the  god  of 
battles,  jealous,  angry  every  day,  with  everlasting 
tortures  of  fire  prepared  for  the  unorthodox,  how- 


46 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l793 


ever  upright,  even  more  than  for  the  immoral  ?  In 
France  too  it  was  a  suspicion  of  unorthodoxy  in 
the  revolutionary  creed  that  plunged  most  of  the 
sufferers  into  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone. 

From  the  time  of  Paine's  speeches  on  the  King's 
fate  he  was  conscious  that  Marat's  evil  eye  was  on 
him.  The  American's  inflexible  republicanism  had 
inspired  the  vigilance  of  the  powerful  journals  of 
Brissot  and  Bonneville,  which  barred  the  way  to 
any  dictatorship.  Paine  was  even  propagating  a 
doctrine  against  presidency,  thus  marring  the  ex- 
ample of  the  United  States,  on  which  ambitious 
Frenchmen,  from  Marat  to  the  Napoleons,  have 
depended  for  their  stepping-stone  to  despotism. 
Marat  could  not  have  any  doubt  of  Paine's  devo- 
tion to  the  Republic,  but  knew  well  his  weariness 
of  the  Revolution.  In  the  simplicity  of  his  repub- 
lican faith  Paine  had  made  a  great  point  of  the 
near  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  dissolution 
of  the  Convention  in  five  or  six  months,  little 
dreaming  that  the  Mountaineers  were  concentrating 
themselves  on  the  aim  of  becoming  masters  of  the 
existing  Convention  and  then  rendering  it  perma- 
nent. Marat  regarded  Paine's  influence  as  dan- 
gerous to  revolutionary  government,  and,  as  he 
afterwards  admitted,  desired  to  crush  him.  The 
proposed  victim  had  several  vulnerable  points  :  he 
had  been  intimate  with  Gouverneur  Morris,  whose 
hostility  to  France  was  known  ;  he  had  been  inti- 
mate with  Dumouriez,  declared  a  traitor  ;  and  he 
had  no  connection  with  any  of  the  Clubs,  in  Vv^hich 
so  many  found  asylum.  He  might  have  joined 
one  of  them  had  he  known  the  French  language. 


17931 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


47 


and  perhaps  it  would  have  been  prudent  to  unite 
himself  with  the  "  Cordeliers,"  in  whose  esprit  de 
corps  some  of  his  friends  found  refuge. 

However,  the  time  of  intimidation  did  not  come 
for  two  months  after  the  King's  death,  and  Paine 
was  busy  with  Condorcet  on  the  task  assigned 
them,  of  preparing  an  Address  to  the  People  of 
England  concerning  the  war  of  their  government 
against  France.  This  work,  if  ever  completed,  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  published.  It  was  entrust- 
ed (February  ist)  to  Barrere,  Paine,  Condorcet, 
and  M.  Faber.  As  P'rederic  Masson,  the  learned 
librarian  and  historian  of  the  Office  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  has  found  some  trace  of  its  being  assigned 
to  Paine  and  Condorcet,  it  may  be  that  further 
research  will  bring  to  light  the  Address.  It  could 
hardly  have  been  completed  before  the  warfare 
broke  out  between  the  Mountain  and  the  Giron- 
dins,  when  anything  emanating  from  Condorcet 
and  Paine  would  have  been  delayed,  if  not  sup- 
pressed. There  are  one  or  two  brief  essays  in 
Condorcet's  works — notably  "  The  French  Republic 
to  Free  Men  " — which  su<yorest  collaboration  with 
Paine,  and  may  be  fragments  of  their  Address.^ 

'  "  Qiuvres  Completes  de  Condorcet,"  Paris,  1804,  t.  xvi.,  p.  16:  "La 
Republique  Francaise  aux  hommes  libres."  In  1794,  when  Paine  was  in 
prison,  a  pamphlet  was  issued  by  the  revolutionary  government,  entitled  : 
"An  Answer  to  the  Declaration  of  the  King  of  England,  respecting  his 
Motives  for  Carrying  on  the  Present  War,  and  his  Conduct  towards 
France."  This  anonymous  pamphlet,  which  is  in  English,  replies  to  the 
royal  proclamation  of  October  29th,  and  bears  evidence  of  being  written 
while  the  English  still  occupied  Toulon  or  early  in  November,  1793. 
There  are  passages  in  it  that  suggest  the  hand  of  Paine,  along  with  others 
which  he  could  not  have  written.  It  is  possible  that  some  composition  of 
his,  in  pursuance  of  the  task  assigned  him  and  Condorcet,  was  utilized  by 
the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  in  its  answer  to  George  III. 


48 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


At  this  time  the  long  friendship  between  Paine 
and  Condorcet,  and  the  Marchioness  too,  had 
become  very  intimate.  The  two  men  had  acted 
together  on  the  King's  trial  at  every  step,  and 
their  speeches  on  bringing  Louis  to  trial  suggest 
previous  consultations  between  them. 

Early  in  April  Paine  was  made  aware  of  Marat's 
hostility  to  him.  General  Thomas  Ward  reported 
to  him  a  conversation  in  which  Marat  had  said: 
"  Frenchmen  are  mad  to  allow  foreigners  to  live 
among  them.  They  should  cut  off  their  ears,  let 
them  bleed  a  few  days,  and  then  cut  off  their 
heads."  "  But  you  yourself  are  a  foreigner," 
Ward  had  replied,  in  allusion  to  Marat's  Swiss 
birth.'  The  answer  is  not  reported.  At  length  a 
tragical  incident  occurred,  just  before  the  trial  of 
Marat  (April  13th),  which  brought  Paine  face  to 
face  with  this  enemy.  A  wealthy  young  English- 
man, named  Johnson,  with  whom  Paine  had  been 
intimate  in  London,  had  followed  him  to  Paris, 
where  he  lived  in  the  same  house  with  his  friend. 
His  love  of  Paine  amounted  to  worship.  Having 
heard  of  Marat's  intention  to  have  Paine's  life 
taken,  such  was  the  young  enthusiast's  despair,  and 
so  terrible  the  wreck  of  his  republican  dreams,  that 
he  resolved  on  suicide.  He  made  a  will  bequeath- 
ing his  property  to  Paine,  and  stabbed  himself. 
Fortunately  he  was  saved  by  some  one  who  entered 
just  as  he  was  about  to  give  himself  the  third  blow. 
It  may  have  been  Paine  himself  who  then  saved 
his  friend's  life  ;  at  any  rate,  he  did  so  eventually. 


'"  Englishmen  in  the  French  Revolution."  By  John  G.  Alger.  London, 
T889,  p.  176.    (A  book  of  many  blunders.) 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


49 


The  decree  for  Marat's  trial  was  made  amid 
galleries  crowded  with  his  adherents,  male  and 
female  ("Dames  de  la  Fraternite " ),  who  hurled 
cries  of  wrath  on  every  one  who  said  a  word  against 
him.  All  were  armed,  the  women  ostentatious  of 
their  poignards.  The  trial  before  the  Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal  was  already  going  in  Marat's 
favor,  when  it  was  determined  by  the  Girondins  to 
bring  forward  this  affair  of  Johnson.  Paine  was 
not,  apparently,  a  party  to  this  move,  though  he 
had  enjoined  no  secrecy  in  telling  his  friend  Brissot 
of  the  incident,  which  occurred  before  Marat  was 
accused.  On  April  i6th  there  appeared  in  Bris- 
sot's  journal  Le  Patriate  Fran^ais,  the  following 
paragraph  : 

"A  sad  incident  has  occurred  to  apprise  the  anarchists  of 
the  mournful  fruits  of  their  frightful  teaching.  An  English- 
man, whose  name  I  reserve,  had  abjured  his  country  because 
of  his  detestation  of  kings  ;  he  came  to  France  hoping  to  find 
there  liberty  ;  he  saw  only  its  mask  on  the  hideous  visage  of 
anarchy.  Heart-broken  by  this  spectacle,  he  determined  on 
self-destruction.  Before  dying,  he  wrote  the  following  words, 
which  we  have  read,  as  written  by  his  own  trembling  hand,  on 
a  paper  which  is  in  the  possession  of  a  distinguished  for- 
eigner : — 'I  had  come  to  France  to  enjoy  Liberty,  but  Marat 
has  assassinated  it.  Anarchy  is  even  more  cruel  than  des- 
potism. I  am  unable  to  endure  this  grievous  sight,  of  the 
triumph  of  imbecility  and  inhumanity  over  talent  and  virtue.'  " 

The  acting  editor  of  Le  Patriate  Frangais,  Girey- 
Dupre,  was  summoned  before  the  Tribunal,  where 
Marat  was  on  trial,  and  testified  that  the  note  pub- 
lished had  been  handed  to  him  by  Brissot,  who 
assured  him  that  it  was  from  the  original,  in  the 
hands  of  Thomas  Paine.    Paine  deposed  that  he 

VOL.  II. — 4 


50  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 

had  been  unacquainted  with  Marat  before  the  Con- 
vention assembled ;  that  he  had  not  supposed 
Johnson's  note  to  have  any  connection  with  the 
accusations  against  Marat. 

President. — Did  you  give  a  copy  of  the  note  to  Brissot  ? 

Paine. — I  showed  him  the  original. 

President. — Did  you  send  it  to  him  as  it  is  printed  ? 

Paine. — Brissot  could  only  have  written  this  note  after  what 
I  read  to  him,  and  told  him.  I  would  observe  to  the  tribunal 
that  Johnson  gave  himself  two  blows  with  the  knife  after  he 
had  understood  that  Marat  would  denounce  him. 

Marat. — Not  because  I  would  denounce  the  youth  who  stab- 
bed himself,  but  because  I  wish  to  denounce  Thomas  Paine.' 

Paine  (continuing). — Johnson  had  for  some  time  suffered 
mental  anguish.  As  for  Marat,  I  never  spoke  to  him  but 
once.  In  the  lobby  of  the  Convention  he  said  to  me  that  the 
English  people  are  free  and  happy  ;  I  replied,  they  groan 
under  a  double  despotism." 

No  doubt  it  had  been  resolved  to  keep  secret 
the  fact  that  young  Johnson  was  still  alive.  The 
moment  was  critical  ;  a  discovery  that  Brissot  had 
written  or  printed  "  avant  de  mourir"  of  one  still 
alive  might  have  precipitated  matters. 

It  came  out  in  the  trial  that  Marat,  addressing 
a  club  ("  Friends  of  Liberty  and  Equality  "),  had 
asked  them  to  recjister  a  vow  to  recall  from  the 
Convention  "  all  of  those  faithless  members  who  had 
betrayed  their  duties  in  trying  to  save  a  tyrant's  life," 
such  deputies  being  "traitors,  royalists,  or  fools." 

Meanwhile  the  Constitution  was  undergoing  dis- 
cussion in  the  Convention,  and  to  that  Paine  now 

'  It  would  appear  that  Paine  had  not  been  informed  until  Marat  declared 
it,  and  was  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  Choppin,  that  the  attempted, 
suicide  was  on  his  account. 

^  Moniteur,  April  24,  1793. 


1793]  REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION, 


51 


gave  his  entire  attention.  On  April  20th  the  Con- 
vention, about  midnight,  v^hen  the  Moderates  had 
retired  and  the  Mountaineers  found  themselves 
masters  of  the  field,  voted  to  entertain  the  petition 
of  the  Parisian  sections  against  the  Girondins. 
Paine  saw  the  star  of  the  Republic  sinking.  On 
"April  20th,  2d  year  of  the  Republic,"  he  wrote  as 
follows  to  Jefferson  : 

"  My  dear  Friend, — The  gentleman  (Dr.  Romer)  to  whom 
I  entrust  this  letter  is  an  intimate  acquaintance  of  Lavater  ; 
but  I  have  not  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  him,  as  he  had 
sett  off  for  Havre  prior  to  my  writing  this  letter,  which  I  for- 
ward to  him  under  cover  from  one  of  his  friends,  who  is  also 
an  acquaintance  of  mine. 

"  We  are  now  in  an  extraordinary  crisis,  and  it  is  not  alto- 
gether without  some  considerable  faults  here.  Dumouriez, 
partly  from  having  no  fixed  principles  of  his  own,  and  partly 
from  the  continual  persecution  of  the  Jacobins,  who  act  with- 
out either  prudence  or  morality,  has  gone  off  to  the  Enemy, 
and  taken  a  considerable  part  of  the  Army  with  him.  The 
expedition  to  Holland  has  totally  failed  and  all  Brabant  is 
again  in  the  hands  of  the  Austrians. 

"  You  may  suppose  the  consternation  which  such  a  sudden 
reverse  of  fortune  has  occasioned,  but  it  has  been  without 
commotion.  Dumouriez  threatened  to  be  in  Paris  in  three 
weeks.  It  is  now  three  weeks  ago  ;  he  is  still  on  the  frontier 
near  to  Mons  with  the  Enemy,  who  do  not  make  any  progress. 
Dumouriez  has  proposed  to  re-establish  the  former  Constitu- 
tion, in  which  plan  the  Austrians  act  with  him.  But  if  France 
and  the  National  Convention  act  prudently  this  project  will 
not  succeed.  In  the  first  place  there  is  a  popular  disposition 
against  it,  and  there  is  force  sufficient  to  prevent  it.  In  the 
next  place,  a  great  deal  is  to  be  taken  into  the  calculation  with 
respect  to  the  Enemy.  There  are  now  so  many  powers  acci- 
dentally jumbled  together  as  to  render  it  exceedingly  difficult 
to  them  to  agree  upon  any  common  object. 

"The  first  object,  that  of  restoring  the  old  Monarchy,  is 


52 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1793 


evidently  given  up  by  the  proposal  to  re-establish  the  late 
Constitution.  The  object  of  England  and  Prussia  was  to 
preserve  Holland,  and  the  object  of  Austria  was  to  recover 
Brabant ;  while  those  separate  objects  lasted,  each  party 
having  one,  the  Confederation  could  hold  together,  each 
helping  the  other  ;  but  after  this  I  see  not  how  a  common 
object  is  to  be  formed.  To  all  this  is  to  be  added  the  probable 
disputes  about  opportunity,  the  expense,  and  the  projects  of 
reimbursements.  The  Enemy  has  once  adventured  into 
France,  and  they  had  the  permission  or  the  good  fortune  to  get 
back  again.  On  every  military  calculation  it  is  a  hazardous 
adventure,  and  armies  are  not  much  disposed  to  try  a  second 
time  the  ground  upon  which  they  have  been  defeated. 

"  Had  this  revolution  been  conducted  consistently  with  its 
principles,  there  was  once  a  good  prospect  of  extending  liberty 
through  the  greatest  part  of  Europe  ;  byt  I  now  relinquish 
that  hope.  Should  the  Enemy  by  venturing  into  France  put 
themselves  again  in  a  condition  of  being  captured,  the  hope 
will  revive  ;  but  this  is  a  risk  that  I  do  not  wish  to  see  tried, 
lest  it  should  fail. 

"  As  the  prospect  of  a  general  freedom  is  now  much  short- 
ened, I  begin  to  contemplate  returning  home.  I  shall  await 
the  event  of  the  proposed  Constitution,  and  then  take  my 
final  leave  of  Europe.  I  have  not  written  to  the  President, 
as  I  have  nothing  to  communicate  more  than  in  this  letter. 
Please  to  present  to  him  my  affection  and  compliments,  and 
remember  me  among  the  circle  of  my  friends.  Your  sincere 
and  affectionate  friend, 

"  Thomas  Paine. 
"  P.  S.    I  just  now  received  a  letter  from  General  Lewis 
Morris,  who  tells  me  that  the  house  and  Barn  on  my  farm  at 
N.  Rochelle  are  burnt  down.    I  assure  you  I  shall  not  bring 
money  enough  to  build  another." 

Four  days  after  this  letter  was  written  Marat, 
triumphant,  was  crowned  with  oak  leaves.  Fou- 
frede  in  his  speech  (April  i6th)  had  said :  "  Marat 
has  formally  demanded  dictatorship."  This  was  the 
mob's  reply  :  Bos  lociUus  est. 


1793] 


RF.VOLUTIOiY  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


53 


With  Danton,  Paine  had  been  on  friendly  terms, 
though  he  described  as  "  rose  water  "  the  author's 
pleadings  against  the  guillotine.  On  May  6th, 
Paine  wrote  to  Danton  a  letter  brought  to  light  by 
Taine,  who  says  :  "Compared  with  the  speeches 
and  writings  of  the  time,  it  produces  the  strangest 
effect  by  its  practical  good  sense." '  Dr.  Robinet 
also  finds  here  evidence  of  "  a  lucid  and  wise  intel- 
lect."^ 

"Paris,  May  6th,  2nd  year  of  the  Republic  (1793). 
"  CiTOYEN  Danton  : 

"  As  you  read  English,  I  write  this  letter  to  you  without 
passing  it  through  the  hands  of  a  translator.  I  am  exceedingly 
disturbed  at  the  distractions,  jealousies,  discontents  and  un- 
easiness that  reign  among  us,  and  which,  if  they  continue,  will 
bring  ruin  and  disgrace  on  the  Republic.  When  I  left  America 
in  the  year  1787,  it  was  my  intention  to  return  the  year  follow- 
ing, but  the  French  Revolution,  and  the  prospect  it  afforded  of 
extending  the  principles  of  liberty  and  fraternity  through  the 
greater  part  of  Europe,  have  induced  me  to  prolong  my  stay 
upwards  of  six  years.  I  now  despair  of  seeing  the  great  ob- 
ject of  European  liberty  accomplished,  and  my  despair  arises 
not  from  the  combined  foreign  powers,  not  from  the  intrigues 
of  aristocracy  and  priestcraft,  but  from  the  tumultuous  mis- 
conduct with  which  the  internal  affairs  of  the  present  revolu- 
tion is  conducted. 

"All  that  now  can  be  hoped  for  is  limited  to  France  only, 
and  I  agree  with  your  motion  of  not  interfering  in  the  govern- 
ment of  any  foreign  country,  nor  permitting  any  foreign 
country  to  interfere  in  the  government  of  France.  This 
decree  was  necessary  as  a  preliminary  toward  terminating  the 
war.  But  while  these  internal  contentions  continue,  while  the 
hope  remains  to  the  enemy  of  seeing  the  Republic  fall  to 
pieces,  while  not  only  the  representatives  of  the  departments 
but  representation  itself  is  publicly  insulted,  as  it  has  lately 

'  "  La  Revolution,"  ii.,  pp.  382,  413,  414. 
'  "  Danton  Emigre,"  p.  177. 


54 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


been  and  now  is  by  the  people  of  Paris,  or  at  least  by  the 
tribunes,  the  enemy  will  be  encouraged  to  hang  about  the 
frontiers  and  await  the  issue  of  circumstances. 

*'  I  observe  that  the  confederated  powers  have  not  yet  recog- 
nised Monsieur,  or  D'Artois,  as  regent,  nor  made  any  proc- 
lamation in  favour  of  any  of  the  Bourbons  ;  but  this  negative 
conduct  admits  of  two  different  conclusions.  The  one  is  that 
of  abandoning  the  Bourbons  and  the  war  together  ;  the  other 
is  that  of  changing  the  object  of  the  war  and  substituting  a 
partition  scheme  in  the  place  of  their  first  object,  as  they  have 
done  by  Poland.  If  this  should  be  their  object,  the  internal 
contentions  that  now  rage  will  favour  that  object  far  more 
than  it  favoured  their  former  object.  The  danger  every  day 
increases  of  a  rupture  between  Paris  and  the  departments. 
The  departments  did  not  send  their  deputies  to  Paris  to  be 
insulted,  and  every  insult  shown  to  them  is  an  insult  to  the 
departments  that  elected  and  sent  them.  I  see  but  one 
effectual  plan  to  prevent  this  rupture  taking  place,  and  that  is 
to  fix  the  residence  of  the  Convention,  and  of  the  future  as- 
semblies, at  a  distance  from  Paris. 

"  I  saw,  during  the  American  Revolution,  the  exceeding  in- 
convenience that  arose  by  having  the  government  of  Congress 
within  the  limits  of  any  Municipal  Jurisdiction.  Congress 
first  resided  in  Philadelphia,  and  after  a  residence  of  four 
years  it  found  it  necessary  to  leave  it.  It  then  adjourned  to 
the  State  of  Jersey.  It  afterwards  removed  to  New  York  ;  it 
again  removed  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  and  after  ex- 
periencing in  every  one  of  these  places  the  great  inconvenience 
of  a  government,  it  formed  the  project  of  building  a  Town, 
not  within  the  limits  of  any  municipal  jurisdiction,  for  the 
future  residence  of  Congress.  In  any  one  of  the  places 
where  Congress  resided,  the  municipal  authority  privately  or 
openly  opposed  itself  to  the  authority  of  Congress,  and  the 
people  of  each  of  those  places  expected  more  attention  from 
Congress  than  their  equal  share  with  the  other  States 
amounted  to.  The  same  thing  now  takes  place  in  France, 
but  in  a  far  greater  excess. 

"  I  see  also  another  embarrassing  circumstance  arising  in 
Paris  of  which  we  have  had  full  experience  in  America.  I 
mean  that  of  fixing  the  price  of  provisions.    But  if  this  meas- 


1793] 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


55 


ure  is  to  be  attempted  it  ought  to  be  done  by  the  Municipal- 
ity. The  Convention  has  nothing  to  do  with  regulations  of 
this  kind  ;  neither  can  they  be  carried  into  practice.  The 
people  of  Paris  may  say  they  will  not  give  more  than  a  cer- 
tain price  for  provisions,  but  as  they  cannot  compel  the  coun- 
try people  to  bring  provisions  to  market  the  consequence  will 
be  directly  contrary  to  their  expectations,  and  they  will  find 
dearness  and  famine  instead  of  plenty  and  cheapness.  They 
may  force  the  price  down  upon  the  stock  in  hand,  but  after 
that  the  market  will  be  empty. 

"I  will  give  you  an  example.  In  Philadelphia  we  under- 
took, among  other  regulations  of  this  kind,  to  regulate  the 
price  of  Salt  ;  the  consequence  was  that  no  Salt  was  brought 
to  market,  and  the  price  rose  to  thirty-six  shillings  sterling  per 
Bushel.  The  price  before  the  war  was  only  one  shilling  and 
sixpence  per  Bushel  ;  and  we  regulated  the  price  of  flour 
(farine)  till  there  was  none  in  the  market,  and  the  people  were 
glad  to  procure  it  at  any  price. 

"  There  is  also  a  circumstance  to  be  taken  into  the  account 
which  is  not  much  attended  to.  The  assignats  are  not  of  the 
same  value  they  were  a  year  ago,  and  as  the  quantity  increases 
the  value  of  them  will  diminish.  This  gives  the  appearance 
of  things  being  dear  when  they  are  not  so  in  fact,  for  in  the 
same  proportion  that  any  kind  of  money  falls  in  value  articles 
rise  in  price.  If  it  were  not  for  this  the  quantity  of  assignats 
would  be  too  great  to  be  circulated.  Paper  money  in  America 
fell  so  much  in  value  from  this  excessive  quantity  of  it,  that 
in  the  year  1781  I  gave  three  hundred  paper  dollars  for  one 
pair  of  worsted  stockings.  What  I  write  you  upon  this  sub- 
ject is  experience,  and  not  merely  opinion. 

"  I  have  no  personal  interest  in  any  of  these  matters,  nor  in 
any  party  disputes.    I  attend  only  to  general  principles. 

"  As  soon  as  a  constitution  shall  be  established  I  shall  re- 
turn to  America  ;  and  be  the  future  prosperity  of  France  ever 
so  great,  I  shall  enjoy  no  other  part  of  it  than  the  happiness 
of  knowing  it.  In  the  mean  time  I  am  distressed  to  see  mat- 
ters so  badly  conducted,  and  so  little  attention  paid  to  moral 
principles.  It  is  these  things  that  injure  the  character  of  the 
Revolution  and  discourage  the  progress  of  liberty  all  over  the 
world. 


56 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 


"  When  I  began  this  letter  I  did  not  intend  making  it  so 
lengthy,  but  since  I  have  gone  thus  far  I  will  fill  up  the  re- 
mainder of  the  sheet  with  such  matters  as  occur  to  me. 

"  There  ought  to  be  some  regulation  with  respect  to  the 
spirit  of  denunciation  that  now  prevails.  If  every  individ- 
ual is  to  indulge  his  private  malignacy  or  his  private  ambition, 
to  denounce  at  random  and  without  any  kind  of  proof,  all 
confidence  will  be  undermined  and  all  authority  be  destroyed. 
Calumny  is  a  species  of  Treachery  that  ought  to  be  punished 
as  well  as  any  other  kind  of  Treachery.  It  is  a  private  vice 
productive  of  public  evils  ;  because  it  is  possible  to  irritate 
men  into  disaffection  by  continual  calumny  who  never  intended 
to  be  disaffected.  It  is  therefore,  equally  as  necessary  to 
guard  against  the  evils  of  unfounded  or  malignant  suspicion 
as  against  the  evils  of  blind  confidence.  It  is  equally  as  nec- 
essary to  protect  the  characters  of  public  officers  from  calum- 
ny as  it  is  to  punish  them  for  treachery  or  misconduct.  For 
my  own  part  I  shall  hold  it  a  matter  of  doubt,  until  better 
evidence  arises  than  is  known  at  present,  whether  Dumouriez 
has  been  a  traitor  from  policy  or  from  resentment.  There  was 
certainly  a  time  when  he  acted  well,  but  it  is  not  every  man 
whose  mind  is  strong  enough  to  bear  up  against  ingratitude, 
and  I  think  he  experienced  a  great  deal  of  this  before  he  re- 
volted. Calumny  becomes  harmless  and  defeats  itself  when 
it  attempts  to  act  upon  too  large  a  scale.  Thus  the  denuncia- 
tion of  the  Sections  [of  Paris]  against  the  twenty-two  deputies 
falls  to  the  ground.  The  departments  that  elected  them  are 
better  judges  of  their  moral  and  political  characters  than  those 
who  have  denounced  them.  This  denunciation  will  injure 
Paris  in  the  opinion  of  the  departments  because  it  has  the 
appearance  of  dictating  to  them  what  sort  of  deputies  they 
shall  elect.  Most  of  the  acquaintances  that  I  have  in  the  con- 
vention are  among  those  who  are  in  that  list,  and  I  know  there 
are  not  better  men  nor  better  patriots  than  what  they  are. 

"  I  have  written  a  letter  to  Marat  of  the  same  date  as  this 
but  not  on  the  same  subject.  He  may  show  it  to  you  if  he 
chuse. 

"  Votre  Ami, 

"Thomas  Paine. 

"  Citoyen  Danton." 


1793] 


REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


57 


It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Panic's  letter  to  Marat  may 
be  discovered  in  France  ;  it  is  shown  by  the  Cob- 
bett  papers,  printed  in  the  Appendix,  that  he  kept 
a  copy,  which  there  is  reason  to  fear  perished  with 
General  Bonneville's  library  in  St.  Louis.  What- 
ever may  be  the  letter's  contents,  there  is  no  indi- 
cation that  thereafter  Marat  troubled  Paine.  Pos- 
sibly Danton  and  Marat  compared  their  letters,  and 
the  latter  got  it  into  his  head  that  hostility  to  this 
American,  anxious  only  to  cross  the  ocean,  could 
be  of  no  advantage  to  him.  Or  perhaps  he  remem- 
bered that  if  a  hue  and  cry  were  raised  against 
"foreigners"  it  could  not  stop  short  of  his  own 
leaf-crowned  Neufchatel  head.  He  had  shown 
some  sensitiveness  about  that  at  his  trial.  Samson- 
Pegnethad  testified  that,  at  conversations  in  Paine's 
house,  Marat  had  been  reported  as  saying  that  it 
was  necessary  to  massacre  all  the  foreigners,  espe- 
cially the  English.  This  Marat  pronounced  an 
"atrocious  calumny,  a  device  of  the  statesmen  [his 
epithet  for  Girondins]  to  render  me  odious."  What- 
ever his  motives,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
Marat  no  longer  included  Paine  in  his  proscribed 
list.  Had  it  been  otherwise  a  fair  opportunity  of 
striking  down  Paine  presented  itself  on  the  occa- 
sion, already  alluded  to,  when  Paine  gave  his  testi- 
mony in  favor  of  General  Miranda.  Miranda  was 
tried  before  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  on  May 
1 2th,  and  three  days  following.  He  had  served  under 
Dumouriez,  was  defeated,  and  was  suspected  of 
connivance  with  his  treacherous  commander.  Paine 
was  known  to  have  been  friendly  with  Dumouriez, 
and  his  testimony  in  favor  of  Miranda  might  natu- 


58 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


rally  have  been  used  against  both  men.  Miranda 
was,  however,  acquitted,  and  that  did  not  make  Ma- 
rat better  disposed  towards  that  adventurer's  friends, 
all  Girondins,  or,  like  Paine,  who  belonged  to  no 
party,  hostile  to  Jacobinism.  Yet  when,  on  June 
2d,  the  doomed  Girondins  were  arrested,  there 
were  surprising  exceptions  :  Paine  and  his  literary 
collaborateur,  Condorcet.  Moreover,  though  the 
translator  of  Paine's  works,  Lanthenas,  was  among 
the  proscribed,  his  name  was  erased  on  Marat's 
motion. 

On  June  7th  Robespierre  demanded  a  more 
stringent  law  against  foreigners,  and  one  was  soon 
after  passed  ordering  their  imprisonment.  It  was 
understood  that  this  could  not  apply  to  the  two  for- 
eigners in  the  Convention— Paine  and  Anacharsis 
Clootz, — though  it  was  regarded  as  a  kind  of  warn- 
ing to  them.  I  have  seen  it  stated,  but  without 
authority,  that  Paine  had  been  admonished  by  Dan- 
ton  to  stay  away  from  the  Convention  on  June  2d, 
and  from  that  day  there  could  not  be  the  slightest 
utility  in  his  attendance.  The  Mountaineers  had  it 
all  their  own  way.  For  simply  criticising  the  Con- 
stitution they  brought  forward  in  place  of  that  of  the 
first  committee,  Condorcet  had  to  fly  from  prosecu- 
tion. Others  also  fled,  among  them  Brissot  and 
Duchatel.  What  with  the  arrestations  and  flights 
Paine  found  himself,  in  June,  almost  alone.  In  the 
Convention  he  was  sometimes  the  solitary  figure  left 
on  the  Plain,  where  but  now  sat  the  brilliant  states- 
men of  France.  They,  his  beloved  friends,  have 
started  in  procession  towards  the  guillotine,  for  even 
flight  must  end  there  ;  daily  others  are  pressed  into 


1793]  REVOLUTION  VS.  CONSTITUTION. 


59 


their  ranks  ;  his  own  summons,  he  feels,  is  only  a 
question  of  a  few  weeks  or  days.  How  Paine  loved 
those  men — Brissot,  Condorcet,  Lasource,  Ducha- 
tel,  Vergniaud,  Gensonne  !  Never  was  man  more 
devoted  to  his  intellectual  comrades.  Even  across 
a  century  one  may  realize  what  it  meant  to  him, 
that  march  of  some  of  his  best  friends  to  the  scaf- 
fold, while  others  were  hunted  through  France,  and 
the  agony  of  their  families,  most  of  whom  he  well 
knew. 

Alas,  even  this  is  not  the  worst !  For  what  were 
the  personal  fate  of  himself  or  any  compared  with 
the  fearful  fact  that  the  harvest  is  past  and  the 
republic  not  saved  !  Thus  had  ended  all  his  labors, 
and  his  visions  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Man.  The 
time  had  come  when  many  besides  poor  Johnson 
sought  peace  in  annihilation.  Paine,  heartbroken, 
sought  oblivion  in  brandy.  Recourse  to  such 
anaesthetic,  of  which  any  affectionate  man  might 
fairly  avail  himself  under  such  incredible  agony  as 
the  ruin  of  his  hopes  and  the  approaching  murder 
of  his  dearest  friends,  was  hitherto  unknown  in 
Paine's  life.  He  drank  freely,  as  was  the  custom 
of  his  time  ;  but  with  the  exception  of  the  evidence 
of  an  enemy  at  his  trial  in  England,  that  he  once 
saw  him  under  the  influence  of  wine  after  a  dinner 
party  (1792),  which  he  admitted  was  "unusual," 
no  intimation  of  excess  is  discoverable  in  any  con- 
temporary record  of  Paine  until  this  his  fifty-seventh 
year.  He  afterwards  told  his  friend  Rickman  that, 
"  borne  down  by  public  and  private  affliction,  he  had 
been  driven  to  excesses  in  Paris "  ;  and,  as  it  was 
about  this  time  that  Gouverneur  Morris  and  Colonel 


60  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAJNE.  [l793 

Bosville,  who  had  reasons  for  disparaging  Paine, 
reported  stories  of  his  drunkenness  (growing  ever 
since),  we  may  assign  the  excesses  mainly  to  June. 
It  will  be  seen  by  comparison  of  the  dates  of  events 
and  documents  presently  mentioned  that  Paine 
could  not  have  remained  long  in  this  pardonable 
refuge  of  mental  misery.  Charlotte  Corday's  poig- 
nard  cut  a  rift  in  the  black  cloud.  After  that  tremen- 
dous July  13th  there  is  positive  evidence  not  only 
of  sobriety,  but  of  life  and  work  on  Paine's  part  that 
make  the  year  memorable. 

Marat  dead,  hope  springs  up  for  the  arrested 
Girondins.  They  are  not  yet  in  prison,  but  under 
"arrestation  in  their  homes";  death  seemed  inevi- 
table while  Marat  lived,  but  Charlotte  Corday  has 
summoned  a  new  leader.  Why  may  Paine's  imper- 
illed comrades  not  come  forth  again  ?  Certainly 
they  will  if  the  new  chieftain  is  Danton,  who  under 
his  radical  rage  hides  a  heart.  Or  if  Marat's  man- 
tle falls  on  Robespierre,  would  not  that  scholarly 
lawyer,  who  would  have  abolished  capital  punish- 
ment, i-everse  Marat's  cruel  decrees  ?  Robespierre 
had  agreed  to  the  new  Constitution  (reported  by 
Paine's  friend,  Herault  de  Sechelles)  and  when  even 
that  dubious  instrument  returns  with  the  popular 
sanction,  all  may  be  well.  The  Convention,  which 
is  doing  everything  except  what  it  was  elected  to 
do,  will  then  dissolve,  and  the  happy  Republic  re- 
member it  only  as  a  nightmare.  So  Paine  takes 
heart  again,  abandons  the  bowl  of  forgetfulness, 
and  becomes  a  republican  Socrates  instructing  dis- 
ciples in  an  old  French  garden. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


A  GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS. 

Sir  George  Trevelyan  has  written  a  pregnant 
passage,  reminding  the  world  of  the  moral  burden 
which  radicals  in  England  had  to  bear  a  hundred 
years  ago. 

"  When  to  speak  or  write  one's  mind  on  politics  is  to  obtain 
the  reputation,  and  render  one's  self  liable  to  the  punishment 
of  a  criminal,  social  discredit,  with  all  its  attendant  moral  dan- 
gers, soon  attaches  itself  to  the  more  humble  opponents  of  a 
ministry.  To  be  outside  the  law  as  a  publisher  or  a  pam- 
phleteer is  only  less  trying  to  conscience  and  conduct  than  to 
be  outside  the  law  as  a  smuggler  or  a  poacher  ;  and  those  who, 
ninety  years  ago,  placed  themselves  within  the  grasp  of  the 
penal  statutes  as  they  were  administered  in  England  and  bar- 
barously perverted  in  Scotland  were  certain  to  be  very  bold 
men,  and  pretty  sure  to  be  unconventional  up  to  the  uttermost 
verge  of  respectability.  As  an  Italian  Liberal  was  sometimes 
half  a  bravo,  and  a  Spanish  patriot  often  more  than  half  a 
brigand,  so  a  British  Radical  under  George  the  Third  had 
generally,  it  must  be  confessed,  a  dash  of  the  Bohemian. 
Such,  in  a  more  or  less  mitigated  form,  were  Paine  and  Cob- 
bett,  Hunt,  Hone,  and  Holcroft  ;  while  the  same  causes  in 
part  account  for  the  elfish  vagaries  of  Shelley  and  the  grim  im- 
proprieties of  Godwin.  But  when  we  recollect  how  these,  and 
the  like  of  these,  gave  up  every  hope  of  worldly  prosperity,  and 
set  their  life  and  liberty  in  continual  hazard  for  the  sake  of 
that  personal  and  political  freedom  which  we  now  exercise  as 
unconsciously  as  we  breathe  the  air,  it  would  be  too  exacting 

6i 


62 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1793 


to  require  that  each  and  all  of  them  should  have  lived  as  deco- 
rously as  Perceval,  and  died  as  solvent  as  Bishop  Tomline." ' 

To  this  right  verdict  it  may  be  added  that,  even 
at  the  earher  period  when  it  was  most  appHcable, 
the  radicals  could  only  produce  one  rival  in  profli- 
gacy (John  Wilkes)  to  their  aristocratic  oppressors. 
It  may  also  be  noted  as  a  species  of  homage  that 
the  slightest  failings  of  eminent  reformers  become 
historic.  The  vices  of  Burke  and  Fox  are  forgot- 
ten. Who  remembers  that  the  younger  Pitt  was 
brought  to  an  early  grave  by  the  bottle  ?  But  every 
fault  of  those  who  resisted  his  oppression  is  placed 
under  a  solar  microscope.  Although,  as  Sir  George 
affirms,  the  oppressors  largely  caused  the  faults, 
this  homage  to  the  higher  moral  standard  of  the 
reformers  may  be  accepted.^ 

It  was,  indeed,  a  hard  time  for  reformers  in  Eng- 
land. Among  them  were  many  refined  gentlemen 
who  felt  that  it  was  no  country  for  a  thinker  and 
scholar  to  live  in.  Among  the  pathetic  pictures  of 
the  time  was  that  of  the  twelve  scholars,  headed  by 
Coleridge  and  Southey,  and  twelve  ladies,  who 
found  the  atmosphere  of  England  too  impure  for 

'  "  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox,"  American  ed.,  p.  440. 

''■  The  following  document  was  found  among  the  papers  of  Mr.  John  Hall, 
originally  of  Leicester,  England,  and  has  been  forwarded  to  me  by  his 
descendant,  J.  Button  Steele,  Jr.,  of  Philadelphia. 

"  A  Copy  of  a  Letter  from  the  chairman  of  a  meeting  of  the  Gentry  and 
Clergy  at  Atherstone,  written  in  consequence  of  an  envious  schoolmaster  and 
two  or  three  others  who  informed  the  meeting  that  the  Excise  Officers  of 
Polesworth  were  employed  in  distributing  the  Rights  of  Man  ;  but  which  was 
very  false. 

"  Sir  :  I  should  think  it  unnecessary  to  inform  you,  that  the  purport  of  his 
Majesty's  proclamation  in  the  Month  of  May  last,  and  the  numerous  meetings 
which  are  daily  taking  place  both  in  Town  and  Country,  are  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  suppressing  treasonable  and  seditious  writings  amongst  which 


1793]     ^  GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS.  63 


any  but  slaves  to  breathe,  and  proposed  to  seek  in 
America  some  retreat  where  their  pastoral  "  pan- 
tisocrasy  "  might  be  realized.  Lack  of  funds  pre- 
vented the  fulfilment  of  this  dream,  but  that  it 
should  have  been  an  object  of  concert  and  endeavor, 
in  that  refined  circle  at  Bristol,  is  a  memorable  sign 
of  that  dreadful  time.  In  the  absence  of  means  to 
form  such  communities,  preserving  the  culture  and 
charm  of  a  society  evolved  out  of  barbarism,  apart 
from  the  walls  of  a  remaining  political  barbarism 
threatening  it  with  their  ruins,  some  scholars  were 
compelled,  like  Coleridge,  to  rejoin  the  feudalists, 
and  help  them  to  buttress  the  crumbling  castle. 
They  secured  themselves  from  the  social  deteriora- 
tion of  living  on  wild  "honey-dew"  in  a  wilder- 
ness, at  cost  of  wearing  intellectual  masks.  Some 
fled  to  America,  like  Cobbett.  But  others  fixed 
their  abode  in  Paris,  where  radicalism  was  fashion- 
able and  invested  with  the  charm  of  the  salon  and 
the  theatre. 

Before  the  declaration  of  war  Paine  had  been 
on  friendly  terms  with  some  eminent  Englishmen 
in  Paris  :  he  dined  every  week  with  Lord  Lauder- 

Mr.  Payne's  Rights  of  Man  ranlis  most  conspicuous.  Were  I  not  informed 
you  have  taken  some  pains  in  spreading  that  publication,  I  write  to  say  If 
you  don't  from  this  time  adopt  a  different  kind  of  conduct  you  wiW  be  taken 
notice  of  in  such  way  as  may  prove  very  disagreeable. 

"  The  Eyes  of  the  Country  are  upon  you  and  you  will  do  well  in  future  to 
shew  yourself  faithful  to  the  INIaster  who  employs  you. 
"  I  remain, 

"  Your  Hble  servant, 

"  (Signed)  Jos.  Boultbee. 

"  Baxterby,  15th  Deer.,  '92. 

"  N.  B.  The  letter  was  written  the  next  morning  after  the  Meeting 
where  most  of  the  Loyal  souls  got  drunk  to  an  uncommon  degree.  They 
drank  his  Majesty's  health  so  often  the  reckoning  amounted  to  7s.  6d.  each. 
One  of  the  informers  threw  down  a  shilling  and  ran  away." 


64 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


dale,  Dr.  John  Moore,  an  author,  and  others  in 
some  restaurant.  After  most  of  these  had  followed 
Lord  Gower  to  England  he  had  to  be  more  guarded. 
A  British  agent,  Major  Semple,  approached  him 
under  the  name  of  Major  Lisle.  He  professed  to 
be  an  Irish  patriot,  wore  the  green  cockade,  and 
desired  introduction  to  the  Minister  of  War.  Paine 
fortunately  knew  too  many  Irishmen  to  fall  into 
this  snare.*  But  General  Miranda,  as  we  have 
seen,  fared  better.  Paine  was,  indeed,  so  overrun 
with  visitors  and  adventurers  that  he  appropriated 
two  mornings  of  each  week  at  the  Philadelphia 
House  for  levees.  These,  however,  became  insuf- 
ficient to  stem  the  constant  stream  of  visitors,  in- 
cluding spies  and  lion-hunters,  so  that  he  had  little 
time  for  consultation  with  the  men  and  women 
whose  co-operation  he  needed  in  public  affairs.  He 
therefore  leased  an  out-of-the-way  house,  reserving 
knowledge  of  it  for  particular  friends,  while  still 
retaining  his  address  at  the  Philadelphia  Hotel, 
where  the  levees  were  continued. 

The  irony  of  fate  had  brought  an  old  mansion  of 
Madame  de  Pompadour  to  become  the  residence 
of  Thomas  Paine  and  his  half  dozen  English  dis- 
ciples. It  was  then,  and  still  is,  No.  63  Faubourg 
St.  Denis.  Here,  where  a  King's  mistress  held  her 
merry  fetes,  and  issued  the  decrees  of  her  reign — 
sometimes  of  terror, — the  little  band  of  English 
humanitarians  read  and  conversed,  and  sported  in 
the  garden.  In  a  little  essay  on  "  Forgetfulness," 
addressed  to  his  friend,  Lady  Smith,  Paine  described 
these  lodgings. 

'  Rickman,  p.  I2g. 


'793]    ^  GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS.  65 


"  They  were  the  most  agreeable,  for  situation,  of  any  I  ever 
had  in  Paris,  except  that  they  were  too  remote  from  the  Con- 
vention, of  which  I  was  then  a  member.  But  this  was  recom- 
pensed by  their  being  also  remote  from  the  alarms  and  con- 
fusion into  which  the  interior  of  Paris  was  then  often  thrown. 
The  news  of  those  things  used  to  arrive  to  us,  as  if  we  were  in 
a  state  of  tranquillity  in  the  country.  The  house,  which  was 
enclosed  by  a  wall  and  gateway  from  the  street,  was  a  good 
deal  like  an  old  mansion  farm-house,  and  the  court-yard  was 
like  a  farm  yard,  stocked  with  fowls, — ducks,  turkies,  and 
geese  ;  which,  for  amusement,  we  used  to  feed  out  of  the  par- 
lor window  on  the  ground  floor.  There  were  some  hutches 
for  rabbits,  and  a  sty  with  two  pigs.  Beyond  was  a  garden  of 
more  than  an  acre  of  ground,  well  laid  out,  and  stocked  with 
excellent  fruit  trees.  The  orange,  apricot,  and  greengage 
plum  were  the  best  I  ever  tasted  ;  and  it  is  the  only  place 
where  I  saw  the  wild  cucumber.  The  place  had  formerly  been 
occupied  by  some  curious  person. 

"  My  apartments  consisted  of  three  rooms  ;  the  first  for 
wood,  water,  etc.;  the  next  was  the  bedroom  ;  and  beyond  it 
the  sitting  room,  which  looked  into  the  garden  through  a  glass 
door  ;  and  on  the  outside  there  was  a  small  landing  place  railed 
in,  and  a  flight  of  narrow  stairs  almost  hidden  by  the  vines  that 
grew  over  it,  by  which  I  could  descend  into  the  garden  without 
going  down  stairs  through  the  house.  ...  I  used  to  find 
some  relief  by  walking  alone  in  the  garden,  after  dark,  and 
cursing  with  hearty  good  will  the  authors  of  that  terrible  sys- 
tem that  had  turned  the  character  of  the  Revolution  I  had 
been  proud  to  defend.  I  went  but  little  to  the  Convention, 
and  then  only  to  make  my  appearance,  because  I  found  it  im- 
possible to  join  in  their  tremendous  decrees,  and  useless  and 
dangerous  to  oppose  them.  My  having  voted  and  spoken  ex- 
tensively, more  so  than  any  other  member,  against  the  execu- 
tion of  the  king,  had  already  fixed  a  mark  upon  me  ;  neither 
dared  any  of  my  associates  in  the  Convention  to  translate  and 
speak  in  French  for  me  anything  I  might  have  dared  to  have 
written.  .  .  .  Pen  and  ink  were  then  of  no  use  to  me  ;  no  good 
could  be  done  by  writing,  and  no  printer  dared  to  print  ;  and 
whatever  I  might  have  written,  for  my  private  amusement,  as 

VOL.  II. — 5 


66  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 

anecdotes  of  the  times,  would  have  been  continually  exposed 
to  be  examined,  and  tortured  into  any  meaning  that  the  rage 
of  party  might  fix  upon  it.  And  as  to  softer  subjects,  my 
heart  was  in  distress  at  the  fate  of  my  friends,  and  my  harp 
hung  upon  the  weeping  willows. 

"  As  it  was  summer,  we  spent  most  of  our  time  in  the 
garden,  and  passed  it  away  in  those  childish  amusements 
that  serve  to  keep  reflection  from  the  mind, — such  as 
marbles,  Scotch  hops,  battledores,  etc.,  at  which  we  were  all 
pretty  expert.  In  this  retired  manner  we  remained  about  six 
or  seven  weeks,  and  our  landlord  went  every  evening  into  the 
city  to  bring  us  the  news  of  the  day  and  the  evening  journal." 

The  "we"  included  young  Johnson,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Christie,  Mr.  Choppin,  probably  Mr.  Shap- 
worth,  an  American,  and  M.  Laborde,  a  scientific 
friend  of  Paine.  These  appear  to  have  entered 
with  Paine  into  co-operative  housekeeping,  though 
taking  their  chief  meals  at  the  restaurants.  In  the 
evenings  they  were  joined  by  others, — the  Brissots 
(before  the  arrest),  Nicholas  Bonneville,  Joel  Bar- 
low, Captain  Imlay,  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  the 
Rolands.  Mystical  Madame  Roland  dreaded 
Paine's  power,  which  she  considered  more  adapted 
to  pull  down  than  to  build,  but  has  left  a  vivid  im- 
pression of  "the  boldness  of  his  conceptions,  the 
originality  of  his  style,  the  striking  truths  he  throws 
out  bravely  among  those  whom  they  offend."  The 
Mr.  Shapworth  alluded  to  is  mentioned  in  a  manu- 
script journal  of  Daniel  Constable,  sent  me  by  his 
nephew,  Clair  J.  Grece,  LL.D.  This  English 
gentleman  visited  Baton  Rouge  and  Shapworth's 
plantation  in  1822.  "Mr.  S.,"  he  says,  "has 
a  daughter  married  to  the  Governor  [Robin- 
son], has  travelled  in  Europe,  married  a  French 


1793]         GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS.  6/ 


lady.  He  is  a  warm  friend  of  Thomas  Paine,  as 
is  his  son-in-law.  He  lived  with  Paine  many 
months  at  Paris.  He  [Paine]  was  then  a  sober, 
correct  gentleman  in  appearance  and  manner." 
The  English  refugees,  persecuted  for  selling  the 
"  Rights  of  Man,"  were,  of  course,  always  welcomed 
by  Paine,  and  poor  Rickman  was  his  guest  during 
this  summer  of  1793/  The  following  reminiscence 
of  Paine,  at  a  time  when  Gouverneur  Morris  was 
(for  reasons  that  presently  appear)  reporting  him 
to  his  American  friends  as  generally  drunk,  was 
written  by  Rickman  : 

"  He  usually  rose  about  seven.  After  breakfast  he  usually 
strayed  an  hour  or  two  in  the  garden,  where  he  one  morning 
pointed  out  the  kind  of  spider  whose  web  furnished  him  with  the 
first  idea  of  constructing  his  iron  bridge  ;  a  fine  model  of  which, 
in  mahogany,  is  preserved  in  Paris.  The  little  happy  circle 
who  lived  with  him  will  ever  remember  those  days  with  delight: 
with  these  select  friends  he  would  talk  of  his  boyish  days, 
played  at  chess,  whist,  piquet,  or  cribbage,  and  enliven  the 
moments  by  many  interesting  anecdotes  :  with  these  he  would 

'  Rickman  appears  to  have  escaped  from  England  in  1792,  according  to 
the  following  sonnet  sent  me  by  Dr.  Grace.  It  is  headed  :  "  Sonnet  to  my 
Little  Girl,  1792.  Written  at  Calais,  on  being  pursued  by  cruel  prosecution 
and  persecution." 

"  Farewell,  sweet  babe  !  and  mayst  thou  never  know, 
Like  me,  the  pressure  of  exceeding  woe. 
Some  griefs  (for  they  are  human  nature's  right) 

On  life's  eventful  stage  will  be  thy  lot ; 
Some  generous  cares  to  clear  thy  mental  sight, 

Some  pains,  in  happiest  hours,  perhaps,  begot ; 
But  mayst  thou  ne'er  be,  like  thy  father,  driven 

From  a  loved  partner,  family,  and  home. 
Snatched  from  each  heart-felt  bliss,  domestic  heaven  ! 

From  native  shores,  and  all  that 's  valued,  roam. 
Oh,  may  bad  governments,  the  source  of  human  woe, 
Ere  thou  becom'st  mature,  receive  their  deadly  blow  ; 
Then  mankind's  greatest  curse  thou  ne'ei  wilt  know. " 


68 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1793 


play  at  marbles,  scotch  hops,  battledores,  etc.:  on  the  broad 
and  fine  gravel  walk  at  the  upper  end  of  the  garden,  and  then 
retire  to  his  boudoir,  where  he  was  up  to  his  knees  in  letters 
and  papers  of  various  descriptions.  Here  he  remained  till 
dinner  time  ;  and  unless  he  visited  Brissot's  family,  or  some 
particular  friend,  in  the  evening,  which  was  his  frequent  cus- 
tom, he  joined  again  the  society  of  his  favorites  and  fellow- 
boarders,  with  whom  his  conversation  was  often  witty  and 
cheerful,  always  acute  and  improving,  but  never  frivolous. 
Incorrupt,  straightforward,  and  sincere,  he  pursued  his  polit- 
ical course  in  France,  as  everywhere  else,  let  the  government 
or  clamor  or  faction  of  the  day  be  what  it  might,  with  firm- 
ness, with  clearness,  and  without  a  shadow  of  turning." 

In  the  spring  of  1890  the  present  writer  visited 
the  spot.  The  lower  front  of  the  old  mansion  is 
divided  into  shops, — a  Fruiterer  being  appropri- 
ately next  the  gateway,  which  now  opens  into  a 
wide  thoroughfare.  Above  the  rooms  once  occu- 
pied by  Paine  was  the  sign  "  Ecrivain  Publique," — 
placed  there  by  a  Mademoiselle  who  wrote  letters 
and  advertisements  for  humble  neighbors  not  expert 
in  penmanship.  At  the  end  of  what  was  once  the 
garden  is  a  Printer's  office,  in  which  was  a  large 
lithograph  portrait  of  Victor  Hugo.  The  printer, 
his  wife,  and  little  daughter  were  folding  publica- 
tions of  the  "  Extreme  Left."  Near  the  door  re- 
mains a  veritable  survival  of  the  garden  and  its 
living  tenants  which  amused  Paine  and  his  friends. 
There  were  two  ancient  fruit  trees,  of  which  one 
was  dying,  but  the  other  budding  in  the  spring  sun- 
shine. There  were  ancient  coops  with  ducks,  and 
pigeon-houses  with  pigeons,  also  rabbits,  and  some 
fiowers.  This  little  nook,  of  perhaps  forty  square 
feet,  and  its  animals,  had  been  there — so  an  old 


1793]     ^  GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS.  69 

inhabitant  told  me — time  out  of  mind.  They  be- 
longed to  nobody  in  particular  ;  the  pigeons  were 
fed  by  the  people  around  ;  the  fowls  were  probably 
kept  there  by  some  poultryman.  There  were  eager 
groups  attending  every  stage  of  the  investigation. 
The  exceptional  antiquity  of  the  mansion  had  been 
recognized  by  its  occupants, — several  families, — 
but  without  curiosity,  and  perhaps  with  regret. 
Comparatively  few  had  heard  of  Paine. 

Shortly  before  I  had  visited  the  garden  near 
Florence  which  Boccaccio's  immortal  tales  have  kept 
in  perennial  beauty  through  five  centuries.  It  may 
be  that  in  the  far  future  some  brother  of  Boccace 
will  bequeath  to  Paris  as  sweet  a  legend  of  the 
garden  where  beside  the  plague  of  blood  the  prophet 
of  the  universal  Republic  realized  his  dream  in 
microcosm.  Here  gathered  sympathetic  spirits 
from  America,  England,  France,  Germany,  Holland, 
Switzerland,  freed  from  prejudices  of  race,  rank,  or 
nationality,  striving  to  be  mutually  helpful,  amus- 
ing themselves  with  Arcadian  sports,  studying 
nature,  enriching  each  other  by  exchange  of  expe- 
riences. It  is  certain  that  in  all  the  world  there  was 
no  group  of  men  and  women  more  disinterestedly 
absorbed  in  the  work  of  benefiting  their  fellow- 
beings.  They  could  not,  however,  like  Boccaccio's 
ladies  and  gentlemen  "kill  Death"  by  their  witty 
tales  ;  for  presently  beloved  faces  disappeared  from 
their  circle,  and  the  cruel  axe  was  gleaming  over 
them. 

And  now  the  old  hotel  became  the  republican 
capitol  of  Europe.  There  sat  an  international 
Premier  with  his  Cabinet,  concentrated  on  the  work 


70 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l793 


of  saving  the  Girondins.  He  was  indeed  treated 
by  the  Executive  government  as  a  Minister.  It 
was  supposed  by  Paine  and  beheved  by  his  adher- 
ents that  Robespierre  had  for  him  some  disHke. 
Paine  in  later  years  wrote  of  Robespierre  as  a 
"  hypocrite,"  and  the  epithet  may  have  a  signifi- 
cance not  recognized  by  his  readers.  It  is  to  me 
probable  that  Paine  considered  himself  deceived  by 
Robespierre  with  professions  of  respect,  if  not  of 
friendliness  before  being  cast  into  prison  ;  a  con- 
clusion naturally  based  on  requests  from  the  Min- 
isters for  opinions  on  public  affairs.  The  archives 
of  the  Revolution  contain  various  evidences  of 
this,  and  several  papers  by  Paine  evidently  in  re- 
ply to  questions.  We  may  feel  certain  that  every 
subject  propounded  was  carefully  discussed  in 
Paine's  little  cosmopolitan  Cabinet  before  his  opin- 
ion was  transmitted  to  the  revolutionary  Cabinet 
of  Committees.  In  reading  the  subjoined  docu- 
ments it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Robespierre 
had  not  yet  been  suspected  of  the  cruelty  presently 
associated  with  his  name.  The  Queen  and  the 
Girondist  leaders  were  yet  alive.  Of  these  leaders 
Paine  was  known  to  be  the  friend,  and  it  was  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  he  should  be  suavely  loyal 
to  the  government  that  had  inherited  these  prison- 
ers from  Marat's  time. 

The  first  of  these  papers  is  erroneously  endorsed 
"January  1793.  Thom.  Payne.  Copie,"  in  the 
French  State  Archives.^  Its  reference  to  the 
defeat  of  the  Duke  of  York  at  Dunkirk  assigns  its 
date  to  the  late  summer.    It  is  headed,  "  Observa- 

Unis.    Vol.  37.    Document  3g. 


1793]     ^  GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS.  yi 

tions  on  the  situation  of  the  Powers  joined  against 
France." 

"  It  is  always  useful  to  know  the  position  and  the  designs  of 
one's  enemies.  It  is  much  easier  to  do  so  by  combining  and 
comparing  the  events,  and  by  examining  the  consequences 
which  result  from  them,  than  by  forming  one's  judgment  by 
letters  found  or  intercepted.  These  letters  could  be  fabricated 
with  the  intention  of  deceiving,  but  events  or  circumstances 
have  a  character  which  is  proper  to  them.  If  in  the  course 
of  our  political  operations  we  mistake  the  designs  of  our 
enemy,  it  leads  us  to  do  precisely  that  which  he  desired  we 
should  do,  and  it  happens,  by  the  fact,  but  against  our  inten- 
tions, that  we  work  for  him. 

"  It  appears  at  first  sight  that  the  coalition  against  France  is 
not  of  the  nature  of  those  which  form  themselves  by  a  treaty. 
It  has  been  the  work  of  circumstances.  It  is  a  heterogeneous 
mass,  the  parts  of  which  dash  against  each  other,  and  often 
neutralise  themselves.  They  have  but  one  single  point  of 
reunion,  the  re-establishment  of  the  monarchical  government 
in  France.  Two  means  can  conduct  them  to  the  execution  of 
this  plan.  The  first  is,  to  re-establish  the  Bourbons,  and  with 
them  the  Monarchy  ;  the  second,  to  make  a  division  similar  to 
that  which  they  have  made  in  Poland,  and  to  reign  themselves 
in  France.  The  political  questions  to  be  solved  are,  then,  to 
know  on  which  of  these  two  plans  it  is  most  probable,  the  united 
Powers  will  act  ;  and  which  are  the  points  of  these  plans  on 
which  they  will  agree  or  disagree. 

"  Supposing  their  aim  to  be  the  re-establishment  of  the 
Bourbons,  the  difficulty  which  will  present  itself,  will  be,  to 
know  who  will  be  their  Allies  ? 

"  Will  England  consent  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  com- 
pact of  family  in  the  person  of  the  Bourbons,  against  whom 
she  has  machinated  and  fought  since  her  existence  ?  Will 
Prussia  consent  to  re-establish  the  alliance  which  subsisted 
between  France  and  Austria,  or  will  Austria  wish  to  re-estab- 
lish the  ancient  alliance  between  France  and  Prussia,  which 
was  directed  against  her  ?  Will  Spain,  or  any  other  maritime 
Power,  allow  France  and  her  Marine  to  ally  themselves  to 


72 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


England  ?  In  fine,  will  any  of  these  Powers  consent  to  fur- 
nish forces  which  could  be  directed  against  herself  ?  However, 
all  these  cases  present  themselves  in  the  hypothesis  of  the 
restoration  of  the  Bourbons. 

"  If  we  suppose  that  their  plan  be  the  dismemberment  of 
France,  difficulties  will  present  themselves  under  another 
form,  but  not  of  the  same  nature.  It  will  no  longer  be  ques- 
tion, in  this  case,  of  the  Bourbons,  as  their  position  will  be 
worse  ;  for  if  their  preservation  is  a  part  of  their  first  plan,  their 
destruction  ought  to  enter  in  the  second  ;  because  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  success  of  the  dismembering  that  not  a  single  pre- 
tendant  to  the  Crown  of  France  should  exist. 

"As  one  must  think  of  all  the  probabilities  in  political  cal- 
culations, it  is  not  unlikely  that'  some  of  the  united  Powers,^ 
having  in  view  the  first  of  these  plans,  and  others  the  second, 
— that  this  may  be  one  of  the  causes  of  their  disagreement. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  that  Russia  recognised  a  Regency 
from  the  beginning  of  Spring  ;  not  one  of  the  other  Pow- 
ers followed  her  example.  The  distance  of  Russia  from 
France,  and  the  different  countries  by  which  she  is  separated 
from  her,  leave  no  doubt  as  to  her  dispositions  with  regard  to 
the  plan  of  division  ;  and  as  much  as  one  can  form  an 
opinion  on  the  circumstances,  it  is  not  her  scheme. 

"  The  coalition  directed  against  France,  is  composed  of 
two  kinds  of  Powers.  The  Maritime  Powers,  not  having  the 
same  interest  as  the  others,  will  be  divided,  as  to  the  execution 
of  the  project  of  division. 

"  I  do  not  hesitate  to  believe  that  the  politic  of  the  English 
Government  is  to  foment  the  scheme  of  dismembering,  and 
the  entire  destruction  of  the  Bourbon  family. 

"  The  difficulty  which  must  arise,  in  this  last  hypothesis,  be- 
tween the  united  Maritime  Powers  proceeds  from  their  views 
being  entirely  opposed. 

"  The  trading  vessels  of  the  Northern  Nations,  from  Hol- 
land to  Russia,  must  pass  through  the  narrow  Channel,  which 
lies  between  Dunkirk  and  the  coasts  of  England  ;  and  con- 
sequently not  one  of  them,  will  allow  this  latter  Power  tc 
have  forts  on  both  sides  of  this  Strait.  The  audacity  with 
which  she  has  seized  the  neutral  vessels  ought  to  demon- 
strate to  all  Nations  how  much  her  schemes  increase  their 


1793]     ^   GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS.  73 


danger,  and  menace  the  security  of  their  present  and  future 
commerce. 

"  Supposing  then  that  the  other  Nations  oppose  the  plans  of 
England,  she  will  be  forced  to  cease  the  war  with  us  ;  or,  if 
she  continues  it,  the  Northern  Nations  will  become  interested 
in  the  safety  of  France. 

"  There  are  three  distinct  parties  in  England  at  this  moment: 
the  Government  party,  the  Revolutionary  party,  and  an  inter- 
medial party, — which  is  only  opposed  to  the  war  on  account  of 
the  expense  it  entails,  and  the  harm  it  does  commerce  and 
manufacture.  I  am  speaking  of  the  People,  and  not  of  the 
Parliament.  The  latter  is  divided  into  two  parties  :  the  Min- 
isterial, and  the  Anti-Ministerial.  The  Revolutionary  party, 
the  intermedial  party  and  the  Anti-Ministerial  party  will  all 
rejoice,  publicly  or  privately,  at  the  defeat  of  the  Duke  of 
York's  army,  at  Dunkirk.  The  intermedial  party,  because 
they  hope  that  this  defeat  will  finish  the  war.  The  Antimin- 
isterial  party,  because  they  hope  it  will  overthrow  the  Minis- 
try. And  all  the  three  because  they  hate  the  Duke  of  York. 
Such  is  the  state  of  the  different  parties  in  England. 

"  Signed  :  Thomas  Paine." 

In  the  same  volume  of  the  State  Archives  (Paris) 
is  the  following  note  by  Paine,  with  its  translation  : 

"  You  mentioned  to  me  that  saltpetre  M'as  becoming  scarce. 
I  communicate  to  you  a  project  of  the  late  Captain  Paul 
Jones,  which,  if  successfully  put  in  practice,  will  furnish  you 
with  that  article. 

"  All  the  English  East  India  ships  put  into  St.  Helena,  off 
the  coast  of  Africa,  on  their  return  from  India  to  England.  A 
great  part  of  their  ballast  is  saltpetre.  Captain  Jones,  who 
had  been  at  St.  Helena,  says  that  the  place  can  be  very  easily 
taken.  His  proposal  was  to  send  off  a  small  squadron  for 
that  purpose,  to  keep  the  English  flag  flying  at  port.  The 
English  vessels  will  continue  coming  in  as  usual.  By  this 
means  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  the  Government  of  Eng- 
land can  have  any  knowledge  of  what  has  happened.  The 
success  of  this  depends  so  much  upon  secrecy  that  I  wish  you 
would  translate  this  yourself,  and  give  it  to  Barrere." 


74 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE,  [i793 


In  the  next  volume  (38)  of  the  French  Ar- 
chives, marked  "  Etats  Unis,  1793,"  is  a  remarka- 
ble document  (No.  39),  entitled  "  A  Citizen  of 
America  to  the  Citizens  of  Europe."  The  name 
of  Paine  is  only  pencilled  on  it,  and  it  was  probably 
written  by  him  ;  but  it  purports  to  have  been  writ- 
ten in  America,  and  is  dated  "  Philadelphia,  July 
28,  1793;  1 8th  Year  of  Independence."  It  is  a 
clerk's  copy,  so  that  it  cannot  now  be  known 
whether  the  ruse  of  its  origin  in  Philadelphia  was 
due  to  Paine  or  to  the  government.  It  is  an  ex- 
tended paper,  and  repeats  to  some  extent,  though 
not  literally,  what  is  said  in  the  "  Observations " 
quoted  above.  Possibly  the  government,  on  receiv- 
ing that  paper  (Document  39  also),  desired  Paine 
to  write  it  out  as  an  address  to  the  "  Citizens  of 
Europe."  It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  pub- 
lished. The  first  four  paragraphs  of  this  paper, 
combined  with  the  "  Observations,"  will  suffice  to 
show  its  character. 

"  Understanding  that  a  proposal  is  intended  to  be  made  at 
the  ensuing  meeting  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  to  send  Commissioners  to  Europe  to  confer  with  the 
Ministers  of  all  the  Neutral  Powers,  for  the  purpose  of  nego- 
ciating  preliminaries  of  Peace,  I  address  this  letter  to  you  on 
that  subject,  and  on  the  several  matters  connected  therewith. 

"  In  order  to  discuss  this  subject  through  all  its  circum- 
stances, it  will  be  necessary  to  take  a  review  of  the  state  of 
Europe,  prior  to  the  French  revolution.  It  will  from  thence 
appear,  that  the  powers  leagued  against  France  are  fighting  to 
attain  an  object,  which,  were  it  possible  to  be  attained,  would 
be  injurious  to  themselves. 

"  This  is  not  an  uncommon  error  in  the  history  of  wars  and 
governments,  of  which  the  conduct  of  the  English  government 
in  the  war  against  America  is  a  striking  instance.    She  com- 


1793]     ^  GARDEN  IN  THE  FAUBOURG  ST.  DENIS.  75 


menced  that  war  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  subjugating 
America  ;  and  after  wasting  upwards  of  one  hundred  millions 
sterling,  and  then  abandoning  the  object,  she  discovered  in  the 
course  of  three  or  four  years,  that  the  prosperity  of  England 
was  increased,  instead  of  being  diminished,  by  the  indepen- 
dence of  America.  In  short,  every  circumstance  is  pregnant 
with  some  natural  effect,  upon  which  intentions  and  opinions 
have  no  influence  ;  and  the  political  error  lies  in  misjudging 
what  the  effect  will  be.  England  misjudged  it  in  the  American 
war,  and  the  reasons  I  shall  now  offer  will  shew,  that  she  mis- 
judges it  in  the  present  war. — In  discussing  this  subject,  I 
leave  out  of  the  question  every  thing  respecting  forms  and 
systems  of  government ;  for  as  all  the  governments  of  Europe 
differ  from  each  other,  there  is  no  reason  that  the  government 
of  France  should  not  differ  from  the  rest. 

"  The  clamours  continually  raised  in  all  the  countries  of 
Europe  were,  that  the  family  of  the  Bourbons  was  become  too 
powerful  ;  that  the  intrigues  of  the  court  of  France  endangered 
the  peace  of  Europe.  Austria  saw  with  a  jealous  eye  the  con- 
nection of  France  with  Prussia  ;  and  Prussia,  in  her  turn 
became  jealous  of  the  connection  of  France  with  Austria  ; 
England  had  wasted  millions  unsuccessfully  in  attempting  to 
prevent  the  family  compact  with  Spain  ;  Russia  disliked  the 
alliance  between  France  and  Turkey  ;  and  Turkey  became 
apprehensive  of  the  inclination  of  France  towards  an  alliance 
with  Russia.  Sometimes  the  quadruple  alliance  alarmed  some 
of  the  powers,  and  at  other  times  a  contrary  system  alarmed 
others,  and  in  all  those  cases  the  charge  was  always  made 
against  the  intrigues  of  the  Bourbons." 

In  each  of  these  papers  a  plea  for  the  imperilled 
Girondins  is  audible.  Each  is  a  reminder  that  he, 
Thomas  Paine,  friend  of  the  Brissotins,  is  continu- 
ing their  anxious  and  loyal  vigilance  for  the  Re- 
public. And  during  all  this  summer  Paine  had 
good  reason  to  believe  that  his  friends  were  safe. 
Robespierre  was  eloquently  deprecating  useless 
effusion  of  blood.    As  for  Paine  himself,  he  was 


76 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  Li793 


not  only  consulted  on  public  questions,  but  trusted 
in  practical  affairs.     He  was  still  able  to  help. 
Americans  and  Englishmen  who  invoked  his  aid. 
Writing  to  Lady  Smith  concerning  two  applications 
of  that  kind,  he  says  : 

"  I  went  into  my  chamber  to  write  and  sign  a  certificate  for 
them,  which  I  intended  to  take  to  the  guard  house  to  obtain 
their  release.  Just  as  I  had  finished  it,  a  man  came  into  my 
room,  dressed  in  the  Parisian  uniform  of  a  captain,  and  spoke 
to  me  in  good  English,  and  with  a  good  address.  He  told  me 
that  two  young  men,  Englishmen,  were  arrested  and  detained 
in  the  guard  house,  and  that  the  section  (meaning  those  who 
represented  and  acted  for  the  section)  had  sent  him  to  ask  me 
if  I  knew  them,  in  which  case  they  would  be  liberated.  This 
matter  being  soon  settled  between  us,  he  talked  to  me  about 
the  Revolution,  and  something  about  the  *  Rights  of  Man,' 
which  he  had  read  in  English  ;  and  at  parting  offered  me,  in  a 
polite  and  civil  manner,  his  services.  And  who  do  you  think 
the  man  was  who  offered  me  his  services  ?  It  was  no  other 
than  the  public  executioner,  Samson,  who  guillotined  the 
King  and  all  who  were  guillotined  in  Paris,  and  who  lived  in 
the  same  street  with  me." 

There  appeared  no  reason  to  suppose  this  a 
domiciliary  visit,  or  that  it  had  any  relation  to  any- 
thing except  the  two  Englishmen.  Samson  was 
not  a  detective.  It  soon  turned  out,  however,  that 
there  was  a  serpent  creeping  into  Paine's  little 
garden  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Denis.  He  and  his 
guests  knew  it  not,  however,  until  all  their  hopes 
fell  with  the  leaves  and  blossoms  amid  which  they 
had  passed  a  summer  to  which  Paine,  from  his 
prison,  looked  back  with  fond  recollection. 


CHAPTER  V. 


A  CONSPIRACY. 

"  He  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate."  Pilate's 
gallant  struggle  to  save  Jesus  from  lynchers  sur- 
vives in  no  kindly  memorial  save  among  the  peas- 
ants of  Oberammergau.  It  is  said  that  the  im- 
pression once  made  in  England  by  the  Miracle 
Play  has  left  its  relic  in  the  miserable  puppet-play 
Punch  and  Judy  (^Pontius  cum  Judceis)  ;  but  mean- 
while the  Church  repeats,  throughout  Christen- 
dom, "  He  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate."  It  is 
almost  normal  in  history  that  the  brand  of  infamy 
falls  on  the  wrong  man.  This  is  the  penalty  of 
personal  eminence,  and  especially  of  eloquence. 
In  the  opening  years  of  the  French  Revolution  the 
two  men  in  Europe  who  seemed  omnipotent  were 
Pitt  and  Robespierre.  By  reason  of  their  elo- 
quence, their  ingenious  defences,  their  fame,  the 
columns  of  credit  and  discredit  were  begun  in  their 
names,  and  have  so  continued.  English  liberalism, 
remembering  the  imprisoned  and  flying  writers, 
still  repeats,  "  They  suffered  under  William  Pitt." 
French  republics  transmit  their  legend  of  Condor- 
cet,  Camille  Desmoulins,  Brissot,  Malesherbes, 
"  They  suffered  under  Robespierre."  The  friends, 
disciples,  biographers,  of  Thomas  Paine  have  it 

77 


78 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE, 


in  their  creed  that  he  suffered  under  both  Pitt  and 
Robespierre.  It  is  certain  that  neither  Pitt  nor 
Robespierre  was  so  strong  as  he  appeared.  Their 
hands  cannot  be  cleansed,  but  they  are  historic 
scapegoats  of  innumerable  sins  they  never  com- 
mitted. 

Unfortunately  for  Robespierre's  memory,  in 
England  and  America  especially,  those  who  for 
a  century  might  have  been  the  most  ready  to 
vindicate  a  slandered  revolutionist  have  been  con- 
fronted by  the  long  imprisonment  of  the  author 
of  the  "  Rights  of  Man,"  and  by  the  discovery 
of  his  virtual  death-sentence  in  Robespierre's  hand- 
writing. Louis  Blanc,  Robespierre's  great  vindi- 
cator, could  not,  we  may  assume,  explain  this 
ugly  fact,  which  he  passes  by  in  silence.  He  has 
proved,  conclusively  as  I  think,  that  Robespierre 
was  among  the  revolutionists  least  guilty  of  the 
Terror ;  that  he  was  murdered  by  a  conspiracy 
of  those  whose  cruelties  he  was  trying  to  restrain  ; 
that,  when  no  longer  alive  to  answer,  they  bur- 
dened him  with  their  crimes,  as  the  only  means  of 
saving  their  heads.  Robespierre's  doom  was 
sealed  when  he  had  real  power,  and  used  it  to  pre- 
vent any  organization  of  the  constitutional  gov- 
ernment which  might  have  checked  revolutionary 
excesses.  He  then,  because  of  a  superstitious  faith 
in  the  auspices  of  the  Supreme  Being,  threw  the 
reins  upon  the  neck  of  the  revolution  he  after- 
wards vainly  tried  to  curb.  Others,  who  did  not 
wish  to  restrain  it,  seized  the  reins  and  when  the 
precipice  was  reached  took  care  that  Robespierre 
should  be  hurled  over  it. 


1793] 


A  CONSPIRACY. 


79 


Many  allegations  against  Robespierre  have  been 
disproved.  He  tried  to  save  Danton  and  Camille 
Desmoulins,  and  did  save  seventy-three  deputies 
whose  death  the  potentates  of  the  Committee 
of  Public  Safety  had  planned.  But  against  him 
still  lies  that  terrible  sentence  found  in  his 
Note  Book,  and  reported  by  a  Committee  to  the 
Convention  :  "  Demand  that  Thomas  Payne  be 
decreed  of  accusation  for  the  interests  of  America 
as  much  as  of  France."  ^ 

The  Committee  on  Robespierre's  papers,  and  es- 
pecially Courtois  its  Chairman,  suppressed  some 
things  favorable  to  him  (published  long  after), 
and  it  can  never  be  known  whether  they  found  any- 
thing further  about  Paine.  They  made  a  strong 
point  of  the  sentence  found,  and  added  :  "  Why 
Thomas  Payne  more  than  another?  Because  he 
helped  to  establish  the  liberty  of  both  worlds." 

An  essay  by  Paine  on  Robespierre  has  been  lost, 
and  his  opinion  of  the  man  can  be  gathered  only 
from  occasional  remarks.  After  the  Courtois  re- 
port he  had  to  accept  the  theory  of  Robespierre's 
malevolence  and  hypocrisy.  He  then,  for  the 
first  time,  suspected  the  same  hand  in  a  previous 
act  of  hostility  towards  him.  In  August,  1793,  an 
address  had  been  sent  to  the  Convention  from 
Arras,  a  town  in  his  constituency,  saying  that  they 
had  lost  confidence  in  Paine.  This  failed  of  success 
because  a  counter-address  came  from  St.  Omer. 
Robespierre  being  a  native  of  Arras,  It  now  seemed 
clear  that  he  had  Instigated  the  address.    It  was, 

'  "  Demander  que  Thomas  Payne  soit  decrete  d'accusation  pour  les  in- 
terets  de  rAmerique  autant  que  de  la  France." 


8o 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 


however,  almost  certainly  the  work  of  Joseph  Le- 
bon,  who,  as  Paine  once  wrote,  "  made  the  streets 
of  Arras  run  with  blood."  Lebon  was  his  sup- 
pleant,  and  could  not  sit  in  the  Convention  until 
Paine  left  it. 

But  although  Paine  would  appear  to  have  as- 
cribed his  misfortunes  to  Robespierre  at  the  time, 
he  was  evidently  mystified  by  the  whole  thing. 
No  word  against  him  had  ever  fallen  from  Robes- 
pierre's lips,  and  if  that  leader  had  been  hostile  to 
him  why  should  he  have  excepted  him  from  the 
accusations  of  his  associates,  have  consulted  him 
through  the  summer,  and  even  after  imprisonment, 
kept  him  unharmed  for  months  ?  There  is  a  notable 
sentence  in  Paine's  letter  (from  prison)  to  Monroe, 
elsewhere  considered,  showing  that  while  there  he 
had  connected  his  trouble  rather  with  the  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety  than  with  Robespierre. 

"  However  discordant  the  late  American  Minister  Gouv- 
ernoeur  Morris,  and  the  late  French  Committee  of  Public 
Safety,  were,  it  suited  the  purposes  of  both  that  I  should  be 
continued  in  arrestation.  The  former  wished  to  prevent  my 
return  to  America,  that  I  should  not  expose  his  misconduct ; 
and  the  latter  lest  I  should  publish  to  the  world  the  history  of 
its  wickedness.  Whilst  that  Minister  and  that  Committee 
continued,  I  had  no  expectation  of  liberty.  I  speak  here  of 
the  Committee  of  which  Robespierre  was  a  member." 

Paine  wrote  this  letter  on  September  lo,  1794. 
Robespierre,  three  months  before  that,  had  ceased 
to  attend  the  Committee,  disavowing  responsibility 
for  its  actions  :  Paine  was  not  released.  Robes- 
pierre, when  the  letter  to  Monroe  was  written,  had 
been  dead  more  than  six  months  :  Paine  was  not 


17931  ^  CONSPIRACY.  8 1 

released.  The  prisoner  had  therefore  good  reason 
to  look  behind  Robespierre  for  his  enemies  ;  and 
although  the  fatal  sentence  found  in  the  Note 
Book,  and  a  private  assurance  of  Barrere,  caused 
him  to  ascribe  his  wrongs  to  Robespierre,  farther 
reflection  convinced  him  that  hands  more  hid- 
den had  also  been  at  work.  He  knew  that  Robes- 
pierre was  a  man  of  measured  words,  and  pondered 
the  sentence  that  he  should  "  be  decreed  of  accusa- 
tion for  the  interests  of  America  as  much  as  of 
France."  In  a  letter  written  in  1802,  Paine  said: 
^'  There  must  have  been  a  coalition  in  sentiment,  if 
not  in  fact,  between  the  terrorists  of  America  and 
the  terrorists  of  France,  and  Robespierre  must 
have  known  it,  or  he  could  not  have  had  the  idea  of 
putting  America  into  the  bill  of  accusation  against 
me."  Robespierre,  he  remarks,  assigned  no  reason 
for  his  imprisonment. 

The  secret  for  which  Paine  groped  has  remained 
hidden  for  a  hundred  years.  It  is  painful  to  reveal 
it  now,  but  historic  justice,  not  only  to  the  memory 
of  Paine,  but  to  that  of  some  eminent  contem- 
poraries of  his,  demands  that  the  facts  be  brought 
to  light. 

The  appointment  of  Gouverneur  Morris  to  be 
Minister  to  France,  in  1792,  passed  the  Senate  by 
16  to  II  votes.  The  President  did  not  fail  to  ad- 
vise him  of  this  reluctance,  and  admonish  him  to 
be  more  cautious  in  his  conduct.  In  the  same  year 
Paine  took  his  seat  in  the  Convention.  Thus  the 
royalist  and  republican  tendencies,  whose  struggles 
made  chronic  war  in  Washington's  Cabinet,  had 
their  counterpart  in   Paris,  where  our  Minister 


82  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 

Morris  wrote  royalist,  and  Paine  republican,  mani- 
festoes. It  will  have  been  seen,  by  quotations 
from  his  diary  already  given,  that  Gouverneur 
Morris  harbored  a  secret  hostility  towards  Paine  ; 
and  it  is  here  assumed  that  those  entries  and  inci- 
dents are  borne  in  mind.  The  Diary  shows  an  ap- 
pearance of  friendly  terms  between  the  two ; 
Morris  dines  Paine  and  receives  information  from 
him.  The  royalism  of  Morris  and  humanity  of 
Paine  brought  them  into  a  common  desire  to  save 
the  life  of  Louis. 

But  about  the  same  time  the  American  Minister's 
own  position  became  a  subject  of  anxiety  to  him. 
He  informs  Washington  (December  28,  1792)  that 
Genet's  appointment  as  Minister  to  the  United 
States  had  not  been  announced  to  him  (Morris). 
"  Perhaps  the  Ministry  think  it  is  a  trait  of  repub- 
licanism to  omit  those  forms  which  were  anciently 
used  to  express  good  will."  His  disposition 
towards  Paine  was  not  improved  by  finding  that  it 
was  to  him  Genet  had  reported.  "  I  have  not  yet 
seen  M.  Genet,"  writes  Morris  again,  "but  Mr. 
Paine  is  to  introduce  him  to  me."  Soon  after  this 
Morris  became  aware  that  the  French  Ministry  had 
asked  his  recall,  and  had  Paine  also  known  this  the 
event  might  have  been  different.  The  Minister's 
suspicion  that  Paine  had  instigated  the  recall  gave 
deadliness  to  his  resentment  when  the  inevitable 
break  came  between  them. 

The  occasion  of  this  arose  early  in  the  spring. 
When  war  had  broken  out  between  England  and 
France,  Morris,  whose  sympathies  were  with  Eng- 
land, was  eager  to  rid  America  of  its  treaty  obli- 


1793] 


A  CONSPIRACY. 


83 


gations  to  France.  He  so  wrote  repeatedly  to 
Jefferson,  Secretary  of  State.  An  opportunity 
presently  occurred  for  acting  on  this  idea.  In  re- 
prisal for  the  seizure  by  British  cruisers  of  American 
ships  conveying  provisions  to  France,  French 
cruisers  were  ordered  to  do  the  like,  and  there 
were  presently  ninety-two  captured  American  ves- 
sels at  Bordeaux.  They  were  not  allowed  to  re- 
load and  go  to  sea  lest  their  cargoes  should  be  cap- 
tured by  England.  Morris  pointed  out  to  the 
French  Government  this  violation  of  the  treaty 
with  America,  but  wrote  to  Jefferson  that  he  would 
leave  it  to  them  in  Philadelphia  to  insist  on  the 
treaty's  observance,  or  to  accept  the  "unfettered" 
condition  in  which  its  violation  by  France  left 
them.  Consultation  with  Philadelphia  was  a  slow 
business,  however,  and  the  troubles  of  the  American 
vessels  were  urgent.  The  captains,  not  suspecting 
that  the  American  Minister  was  satisfied  with  the 
treaty's  violation,  were  angry  at  his  indifference 
about  their  relief,  and  applied  to  Paine.  Unable  to 
move  Morris,  Paine  asked  him  "  if  he  did  not  feel 
ashamed  to  take  the  money  of  the  country  and  do 
nothing  for  it."  It  was,  of  course,  a  part  of  Morris' 
scheme  for  ending  the  treaty  to  point  out  its  viola- 
tion and  the  hardships  resulting,  and  this  he  did ; 
but  it  would  defeat  his  scheme  to  obtain  the 
practical  relief  from  those  hardships  which  the  un- 
theoretical  captains  demanded.  On  August  20th, 
the  captains  were  angrily  repulsed  by  the  American 
Minister,  who,  however,  after  they  had  gone,  must 
have  reflected  that  he  had  gone  too  far,  and  was  in 
an  untenable  position  ;  for  on  the  same  day  he 


84 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


wrote  to  the  French  Minister  a  statement  of  the 
complaint. 

"  I  do  not  [he  adds]  pretend  to  interfere  in  the  internal 
concerns  of  the  French  Republic,  and  I  am  persuaded  that 
the  Convention  has  had  weighty  reasons  for  laying  upon 
Americans  the  restriction  of  which  the  American  captains 
complain.  The  result  will  nevertheless  be  that  this  prohibi- 
tion will  severely  aggrieve  the  parties  interested,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  commerce  between  France  and  the  United  States." 

The  note  is  half-hearted,  but  had  the  captains 
known  it  was  written  they  might  have  been  more 
patient.  Morris  owed  his  subsequent  humiliation 
partly  to  his  bad  manners.  The  captains  went  off 
to  Paine,  and  proposed  to  draw  up  a  public  protest 
against  the  American  Minister.  Paine  advised 
against  this,  and  recommended  a  petition  to  the 
Convention.  This  was  offered  on  August  2 2d. 
In  this  the  captains  said:  "We,  who  know  your 
political  situation,  do  not  come  to  you  to  demand 
the  rigorous  execution  of  the  treaties  of  alliance 
which  unite  us  to  you.  We  confine  ourselves  to 
asking  for  the  present,  to  carry  provisions  to  your 
colonies."  To  this  the  Convention  promptly  and 
favorably  responded. 

It  was  a  double  humiliation  to  Morris  that  the 
first  important  benefit  gained  by  Americans  since 
his  appointment  should  be  secured  without  his 
help,  and  that  it  should  come  through  Paine.  And 
it  was  a  damaging  blow  to  his  scheme  of  transfer- 
ring to  England  our  alliance  with  France.  A 
"  violation  "  of  the  treaty  excused  by  the  only  suf- 
ferers could  not  be  cited  as  "  releasing  "  the  United 
States.    A  cruel  circumstance  for  Morris  was  that 


17931 


A  CONSPIRACY. 


85 


the  French  Minister  wrote  (October  14th)  :  "  You 
must  be  satisfied,  sir,  with  the  manner  in  which  the 
request  presented  by  the  American  captains  from 
Bordeaux,  has  been  received" — and  so  forth.  Four 
days  before,  Morris  had  written  to  Jefferson,  speak- 
ing of  the  thing  as  mere  "  mischief,"  and  behtthng 
the  success,  which  "  only  served  an  ambition  so 
contemptible  that  I  shall  draw  over  it  the  veil  of 
oblivion." 

The  "  contemptible  ambition  "  thus  veiled  from 
Paine's  friend,  Jefferson,  was  revealed  by  Morris  to 
others.  Some  time  before  (June  25th),  he  had 
written  to  Robert  Morris  : 

"  I  suspected  that  Paine  was  intriguing  against  me,  although 
he  put  on  a  face  of  attachment.  Since  that  period  I  am  con- 
firmed in  the  idea,  for  he  came  to  my  house  with  Col.  Oswald, 
and  being  a  little  more  drunk  than  usual,  behaved  extremely 
ill,  and  through  his  insolence  I  discovered  clearly  his  vain 
ambition." 

This  was  probably  written  after  Paine's  rebuke  al- 
ready quoted.  It  is  not  likely  that  Colonel  Oswald 
would  have  taken  a  tipsy  man  eight  leagues  out  to 
Morris'  retreat,  Sainport,  on  business,  or  that  the 
tipsy  man  would  remember  the  words  of  his  rebuke 
two  years  after,  when  Paine  records  them  in  his 
letter  to  Washington.  At  any  rate,  if  Morris 
saw  no  deeper  into  Paine's  physical  than  into  his 
mental  condition,  the  "  insolent  "  words  were  those 
of  soberness.  For  Paine's  private  letters  prove 
him  ignorant  of  any  intrigue  against  Morris,  and 
under  an  impression  that  the  Minister  had  himself 
asked  for  recall  ;  also  that,  instead  of  being  ambi- 


86 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l793 


tious  to  succeed  Morris,  he  was  eager  to  get  out  of 
France  and  back  to  America.  The  first  expression 
of  French  dissatisfaction  with  Morris  had  been 
made  through  De  Ternant,  (February  20th,  1 793,) 
whom  he  had  himself  been  the  means  of  sending 
as  Minister  to  the  United  States.  The  positive 
recall  was  made  through  Genet/  It  would  appear 
that  Morris  must  have  had  sore  need  of  a  scape- 
goat to  fix  on  poor  Paine,  when  his  intrigues  with 
the  King's  agents,  his  trust  of  the  King's  money, 
his  plot  for  a  second  attempt  of  the  King  to  escape, 
his  concealment  of  royalist  leaders  in  his  house, 
had  been  his  main  ministerial  performances  for 
some  time  after  his  appointment.  Had  the  French 
known  half  as  much  as  is  now  revealed  in  Morris' 
Diary,  not  even  his  office  could  have  shielded  him 
from  arrest.  That  the  executive  there  knew  much 
of  it,  appears  in  the  revolutionary  archives.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  Paine,  instead  of  intriguing 
against  Morris,  had,  in  ignorance  of  his  intrigues, 
brought  suspicion  on  himself  by  continuing  his  in- 
tercourse with  the  Minister.    The  following  letter 

'  On  September  i,  1792,  Morris  answered  a  request  of  the  executive  of  the 
republic  that  he  could  not  comply  until  he  had  received  "orders  from  his 
Court,"  (les  ordres  de  ma  cotir).  The  representatives  of  the  new-born  repub- 
lic were  scandalized  by  such  an  expression  from  an  American  Minister,  and 
also  by  his  intimacy  with  Lord  and  Lady  Gower.  They  may  have  suspected 
what  Morris'  "  Diary  "  now  suggests,  that  he  (Morris)  owed  his  appointment 
to  this  English  Ambassador  and  his  wife.  On  August  17,  1792,  Lord  Gower 
was  recalled,  in  hostility  to  the  republic,  but  during  the  further  weeks  of  his 
stay  in  Paris  the  American  Minister  frequented  their  house.  From  the  recall 
Morris  was  saved  for  a  year  by  the  intervention  of  Edmund  Randolph.  (See 
my  "Omitted  Chapters  of  History,"  etc,  p.  149.)  Randolph  met  with  a 
Morrisian  reward.  Morris  ("  Diary,"  ii.,  p.  98)  records  an  accusation  of 
Randolph,  to  which  he  listened  in  the  office  of  Lord  Grenville,  Secretary  of 
State,  which  plainly  meant  his  (Randolph's)  ruin,  which  followed.  He 
knew  it  to  be  untrue,  but  no  defence  is  mentioned. 


1793] 


A  CONSPIRACY. 


87 


of  Paine  to  Barrere,  chief  Committeeman  of  Public 
Safety,  dated  September  5th,  shows  him  protecting 
Morris  while  he  is  trying  to  do  something  for  the 
American  captains. 

"  I  send  you  the  papers  you  asked  me  for. 

"  The  idea  you  have  to  send  Commissioners  to  Congress,  and 
of  which  you  spoke  to  me  yesterday,  is  excellent,  and  very 
necessary  at  this  moment.  Mr.  Jefferson,  formerly  Minister 
of  the  United  States  in  France,  and  actually  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs  at  Congress,  is  an  ardent  defender  of  the  in- 
terests of  France.  Gouverneur  Morris,  who  is  here  now,  is 
badly  disposed  towards  you.  I  believe  he  has  expressed  the 
wish  to  be  recalled.  The  reports  which  he  will  make  on  his 
arrival  will  not  be  to  the  advantage  of  France.  This  event 
necessitates  the  sending  direct  of  Commissioners  from  the 
Convention.  Morris  is  not  popular  in  America.  He  has  set 
the  Americans  who  are  here  against  him,  as  also  the  Captains 
of  that  Nation  who  have  come  from  Bordeaux,  by  his  negli- 
gence with  regard  to  the  affair  they  had  to  treat  about  with 
the  Convention.  Between  us  [«V]  he  told  them  :  '  That  they 
had  thrown  themselves  into  the  lion's  mouth,  and  it  was  for 
them  to  get  out  of  it  as  best  they  could.'  I  shall  return  to 
America  on  one  of  the  vessels  which  will  start  from  Bordeaux 
in  the  month  of  October.  This  was  the  project  I  had  formed, 
should  the  rupture  not  take  place  between  America  and  Eng- 
land ;  but  now  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  be  there  as  soon  as 
possible.  The  Congress  will  require  a  great  deal  of  informa- 
tion, independently  of  this.  It  will  soon  be  seven  years  that  I 
have  been  absent  from  America,  and  my  affairs  in  that  country 
have  suffered  considerably  through  my  absence.  My  house 
and  farm  buildings  have  been  entirely  destroyed  through  an 
accidental  fire. 

"  Morris  has  many  relations  in  America,  who  are  excellent 
patriots.  I  enclose  you  a  letter  which  I  received  from  his 
brother,  General  Louis  Morris,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Con- 
gress at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  You 
will  see  by  it  that  he  writes  like  a  good  patriot.  I  only  men- 
tion this  so  that  you  may  know  the  true  state  of  things.    It  will 


88 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 


be  fit  to  have  respect  for  Gouverneur  Morris,  on  account  of  his 
relations,  who,  as  I  said  above,  are  excellent  patriots. 

"  There  are  about  45  American  vessels  at  Bordeaux,  at  the 
present  moment.  If  the  English  Government  wished  to  take 
revenge  on  the  Americans,  these  vessels  would  be  very  much 
exposed  during  their  passage.  The  American  Captains  left 
Paris  yesterday.  I  advised  them,  on  leaving,  to  demand  a 
convoy  of  the  Convention,  in  case  they  heard  it  said  that  the 
English  had  begun  reprisals  against  the  Americans,  if  only  to 
conduct  as  far  as  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  at  the  expense  of  the 
American  Government.  But  if  the  Convention  determines  to 
send  Commissioners  to  Congress,  they  will  be  sent  in  a  ship 
of  the  line.  But  it  would  be  better  for  the  Commissioners  to 
go  in  one  of  the  best  American  sailing  vessels,  and  for  the 
ship  of  the  line  to  serve  as  a  convoy  ;  it  could  also  serve  to 
convoy  the  ships  that  will  return  to  France  charged  with  flour. 
I  am  sorry  that  we  cannot  converse  together,  but  if  you  could 
give  me  a  rendezvous,  where  I  could  see  Mr.  Otto,  I  shall  be 
happy  and  ready  to  be  there.  If  events  force  the  American 
captains  to  demand  a  convoy,  it  will  be  to  me  that  they  will 
write  on  the  subject,  and  not  to  Morris,  against  whom  they  have 
grave  reasons  of  complaint.    Your  friend,  etc. 

Thomas  Paine.'" 

This  is  the  only  letter  written  by  Paine  to  any 
one  in  France  about  Gouverneur  Morris,  so  far  as 
I  can  discover,  and  not  knowing  French  he  could 
only  communicate  in  writing.  The  American  Ar- 
chives are  equally  without  anything  to  justify  the 
Minister's  suspicion  that  Paine  was  intriguing 
against  him,  even  after  his  outrageous  conduct 
about  the  captains.  Morris  had  laid  aside  the 
functions  of  a  Minister  to  exercise  those  of  a  treaty- 
making  government.    During  this  excursion  into 

'  State  Archives,  Paris.  Etats  Unis,  Vol.  38,  No.  93.  Endorsed  :  "  No. 
6.  Translation  of  a  letter  from  Thomas  Payne  to  Citizen  Barrere."  It 
may  be  noted  that  Paine  and  Barrere,  though  they  could  read  each  other's 
language,  could  converse  only  in  their  own  tongue. 


1793] 


A  CONSPIRACY. 


89 


presidential  and  senatorial  power,  for  the  injury  of 
the  country  to  which  he  was  commissioned,  his  own 
countrymen  in  France  were  without  an  official 
Minister,  and  in  their  distress  imposed  ministerial 
duties  on  Paine.  But  so  far  from  wishing  to  su- 
persede Morris,  Paine,  in  the  above  letter  to  Bar- 
rere,  gives  an  argument  for  his  retention,  namely, 
that  if  he  goes  home  he  will  make  reports  disadvan- 
tageous to  France.  He  also  asks  respect  for  Mor- 
ris on  account  of  his  relations,  "  excellent  patriots." 

Barrere,  to  whom  Paine's  letter  is  written,  was 
chief  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  and  had 
held  that  powerful  position  since  its  establishment, 
April  6,  1 793.  To  this  all-powerful  Committee 
of  Nine  Robespierre  was  added  July  27th.  On 
the  day  that  Paine  wrote  the  letter,  September  5th, 
Barrere  opened  the  Terror  by  presenting  a  report 
in  which  it  is  said,  "  Let  us  make  terror  the  order 
of  the  day ! "  This  Barrere  was  a  sensualist,  a 
crafty  orator,  a  sort  of  eel  which  in  danger  turned 
into  a  snake.  His  "  supple  genius,"  as  Louis  Blanc 
expresses  it,  was  probably  appreciated  by  Morris, 
who  was  kept  well  informed  as  to  the  secrets  of  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety.  This  omnipotent 
Committee  had  supervision  of  foreign  affairs  and 
appointments.  At  this  time  the  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs  was  Deforgues,  whose  secretary  was 
the  M.  Otto  alluded  to  in  Paine's  letter  to  Barrere. 
Otto  spoke  English  fluently  ;  he  had  been  in  the 
American  Legation.  Deforgues  became  Minister 
June  5th,  on  the  arrest  of  his  predecessor  (Lebrun), 
and  was  anxious  lest  he  should  follow  Lebrun  to 
prison  also, — as  he  ultimately  did.    Deforgues  and 


90 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 


his  secretary,  Otto,  confided  to  Morris  their  strong 
desire  to  be  appointed  to  America,  Genet  having 
been  recalled.  ^ 

Despite  the  fact  that  Morris'  hostility  to  France 
was  well  known,  he  had  become  an  object 
of  awe.  So  long  as  his  removal  was  daily  ex- 
pected in  reply  to  a  request  twice  sent  for  his  recall, 
Morris  was  weak,  and  even  insulted.  But  when 
ship  after  ship  came  in  without  such  recall,  and  at 
length  even  with  the  news  that  the  President  had 
refused  the  Senate's  demand  for  Morris'  entire 
correspondence,  everything  was  changed.  ^  "  So 
long,"  writes  Morris  to  Washington,  "  as  they  be- 
lieved in  the  success  of  their  demand,  they  treated 
my  representations  with  indifference  and  contempt ; 
but  at  last,  hearing  nothing  from  their  minister  on 
that  subject,  or,  indeed,  on  any  other,  they  took  it 
into  their  heads  that  I  was  immovable,  and  made 
overtures  for  conciliation."  It  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  at  this  time  America  was  the  only  ally  of 
France  ;  that  already  there  were  fears  that  Wash- 
ington was  feeling  his  way  towards  a  treaty  with 
England.  Soon  after  the  overthrow  of  the  mon- 
archy Morris  had  hinted  that  the  treaty  between 
the  United  States  and  France,  having  been  made 
with  the  King,  might  be  represented  by  the  Eng- 
lish Ministry  in  America  as  void  under  the  revolu- 
tion ;  and  that  "  it  would  be  well  to  evince  a  degree 
of  good  will  to  America."  When  Robespierre  first 
became  a  leader  he  had  particular  charge  of  diplo- 

'  Morris'  letter  to  Washington,  Oct.  i8,  1793.    The  passage  is  omitted 
from  the  letter  as  quoted  in  his  "  Diary  and  Letters,"  ii.,  p.  53. 
'  See  my  "  Life  of  Edmund  Randolph,"  p.  214. 


1793]  ^  CONSPIRACY.  91 

matic  affairs.  It  is  stated  by  Frederic  Masson  that 
Robespierre  was  very  anxious  to  recover  for  the 
repubhc  the  initiative  of  the  alHance  with  the 
United  States,  which  was  credited  to  the  King  ; 
and  "  although  their  Minister  Gouverneur  Morris 
was  justly  suspected,  and  the  American  republic 
was  at  that  time  aiming  only  to  utilize  the  condition 
of  its  ally,  the  French  republic  cleared  it  at  a  cheap 
rate  of  its  debts  contracted  with  the  King."  ^ 
Such  were  the  circumstances  which,  when  Wash- 
ington seemed  determined  to  force  Morris  on 
France,  made  this  Minister  a  power.  Lebrun,  the 
ministerial  predecessor  of  Deforgues,  may  indeed 
have  been  immolated  to  placate  Morris,  who  hav- 
ing been,  under  his  administration,  subjected  to  a 
domiciliary  visit,  had  gone  to  reside  in  the  country. 
That  was  when  Morris'  removal  was  supposed  near ; 
but  now  his  turn  came  for  a  little  reign  of  terror 
on  his  own  account.  In  addition  to  Deforgues' 
fear  of  Lebrun's  fate,  should  he  anger  Washing- 
ton's immovable  representative,  he  knew  that  his 
hope  of  succeeding  Genet  in  America  must  depend 
on  Morris.  The  terrors  and  schemes  of  Defor- 
gues and  Otto  brought  them  to  the  feet  of  Morris. 

About  the  time  when  the  chief  of  the  Committee 
of  Public  Safety,  Barrere,  was  consulting  Paine 
about  sending  Commissioners  to  America,  Defor- 
gues was  consulting  Morris  on  the  same  point.  The 
interview  was  held  shortly  after  the  humiliation 
which  Morris  had  suffered,  in  the  matter  of  the 
captains,  and  the  defeat  of  his  scheme  for  utilizing 

'  "  Le  Departement  des  Affaires  Etrangeres  pendant  la  Revolution," 
p.  295. 


92 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


their  grievance  to  release  the  United  States  from 
their  alHance.  The  American  captains  had  ap- 
pointed Paine  their  Minister,  and  he  had  been  suc- 
cessful. Paine  and  his  clients  had  not  stood  in 
awe  of  Morris  ;  but  he  now  had  the  strength  of  a 
giant,  and  proceeded  to  use  it  like  a  giant. 

The  interview  with  Deforgues  was  not  reported 
by  Morris  to  the  Secretary  of  State  (Paine's  friend, 
Jefferson),  but  in  a  confidential  letter  to  Washing- 
ton,— so  far  as  was  prudent. 

"  I  have  insinuated  [he  writes]  the  advantages  which  might 
result  from  an  early  declaration  on  the  part  of  the  new  minis- 
ter that,  as  France  has  announced  the  determination  not  to 
meddle  with  the  interior  affairs  of  other  nations,  he  can  know 
only  the  governme?it  of  America.  In  union  with  this  idea,  I 
told  the  minister  that  I  had  observed  an  overruling  influence 
in  their  affairs  which  seemed  to  come  from  the  other  side  of 
the  channel,  and  at  the  same  time  had  traced  the  intention  to 
excite  a  seditious  spirit  in  America  ;  that  it  was  impossible  to 
be  on  a  friendly  footing  with  such  persons,  but  that  at  present 
a  different  spirit  seemed  to  prevail,  etc.  This  declaration 
produced  the  effect  I  intended."  ' 

In  thus  requiring  that  the  new  minister  to 
America  shall  recognize  only  the  "government" 
(and  not  negotiate  with  Kentucky,  as  Genet  had 
done),  notice  is  also  served  on  Deforgues  that  the 
Convention  must  in  future  deal  only  with  the 
American  Minister,  and  not  with  Paine  or  sea-cap- 
tains in  matters  affecting  his  countrymen.  The 
reference  to  an  influence  from  the  other  side  of 
the  channel  could  only  refer  to  Paine,  as  there 
were  then  no  Englishmen  in  Paris  outside  his  gar- 

'  Letter  to  Washington,  Oct.  1 8,  1793. 


A  CONSPIRACY. 


93 


den  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Denis.  By  this  ingenious 
phrase  Morris  already  disclaims  jurisdiction  over 
Paine,  and  suggests  that  he  is  an  Englishman  wor- 
rying Washington  through  Genet.  This  was  a 
clever  hint  in  another  way.  Genet,  now  recalled, 
evidently  for  the  guillotine,  had  been  introduced  to 
Morris  by  Paine,  who  no  doubt  had  given  him  let- 
ters to  eminent  Americans.  Paine  had  sympa- 
thized warmly  with  the  project  of  the  Kentuckians 
to  expel  the  Spanish  from  the  Mississippi,  and  this 
was  patriotic  American  doctrine  even  after  Ken- 
tucky was  admitted  into  the  Union  (June  i,  1792). 
He  had  corresponded  with  Dr.  O'Fallon,  a  leading 
Kentuckian  on  the  subject.  But  things  had  changed, 
and  when  Genet  went  out  with  his  blank  commis- 
sions he  found  himself  confronted  with  a  proclama- 
tion of  neutrality  which  turned  his  use  of  them  to 
sedition.  Paine's  acquaintance  with  Genet,  and 
his  introductions,  could  now  be  plausibly  used  by 
Morris  to  involve  him.  The  French  Minister  is 
shown  an  easy  way  of  relieving  his  country  from  re- 
sponsibility for  Genet,  by  placing  it  on  the  deputy 
from  "  the  other  side  of  the  channel." 

"  This  declaration  produced  the  effect  I  intended," 
wrote  Morris.  The  effect  was  indeed  swift.  On 
October  3d,  Amar,  after  the  doors  of  the  Conven- 
tion were  locked,  read  the  memorable  accusation 
against  the  Girondins,  four  weeks  before  their  exe- 
cution. In  that  paper  he  denounced  Brissot  for 
his  effort  to  save  the  King,  for  his  intimacy  with 
the  English,  for  injuring  the  colonies  by  his  la- 
bors for  negro  emancipation  !  In  this  denuncia- 
tion Paine  had  the  honor  to  be  included. 


94 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1793 


"At  that  same  time  the  Englishman  Thomas  Paine,  called 
by  the  faction  [Girondin]  to  the  honor  of  representing  the 
French  nation,  dishonored  himself  by  supporting  the  opinion 
of  Brissot,  and  by  promising  us  in  his  fable  the  dissatisfaction 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  our  natural  allies,  which  he 
did  not  blush  to  depict  for  us  as  full  of  veneration  and  grati- 
tude for  the  tyrant  of  France." 

On  October  19th  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Deforgues,  writes  to  Morris  : 

"  I  shall  give  the  Council  an  account  of  the  punishable  con- 
duct of  their  agent  in  the  United  States  [Genet],  and  I  can 
assure  you  beforehand  that  they  will  regard  the  strange  abuse 
of  their  confidence  by  this  agent,  as  I  do,  with  the  liveliest 
indignation.  The  President  of  the  United  States  has  done 
justice  to  our  sentiments  in  attributing  the  deviations  of  the 
citizen  Genet  to  causes  entirely  foreign  to  his  instructions,  and 
we  hope  that  the  measures  to  be  taken  will  more  and  more 
convince  the  head  and  members  of  your  Government  that 
so  far  from  having  authorized  the  proceedings  and  ma- 
noeuvres of  Citizen  Genet  our  only  aim  has  been  to  maintain 
between  the  two  nations  the  most  perfect  harmony." 

One  of  "  the  measures  to  be  taken  "  was  the  im- 
prisonment of  Paine,  for  which  Amar's  denunciation 
had  prepared  the  way.  But  this  was  not  so  easy. 
For  Robespierre  had  successfully  attacked  Amar's 
report  for  extending  its  accusations  beyond  the 
Girondins.  How  then  could  an  accusation  be  made 
against  Paine,  against  whom  no  charge  could  be 
brought,  except  that  he  had  introduced  a  French 
minister  to  his  friends  in  America  !  A  deputy  must 
be  formally  accused  by  the  Convention  before  he 
could  be  tried  by  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal.  An 
indirect  route  must  be  taken  to  reach  the  deputy 
secretly  accused  by  the  American  Minister,  and  the 


1793] 


A  CONSPIRACY. 


95 


latter  had  pointed  it  out  by  alluding  to  Paine  as  an 
influence  "  from  across  the  channel."  There  was  a 
law  passed  in  June  for  the  imprisonment  of  foreign- 
ers belono^ina-  to  countries  at  war  with  France. 
This  was  administered  by  the  Committees.  Paine 
had  not  been  liable  to  this  law,  being  a  deputy,  and 
never  suspected  of  citizenship  in  the  country  which 
had  outlawed  him,  until  Morris  suggested  it.  Could 
he  be  got  out  of  the  Convention  the  law  might  be 
applied  to  him  without  necessitating  any  public 
accusation  and  trial,  or  anything  more  than  an  an- 
nouncement to  the  Deputies. 

Such  was  the  course  pursued.  Christmas  day 
was  celebrated  by  the  terrorist  Bourdon  de  I'Oise 
with  a  denunciation  of  Paine  :  "  They  have  boasted 
the  patriotism  of  Thomas  Paine.  Ek  bien  /  Since 
the  Brissotins  disappeared  from  the  bosom  of  this 
Convention  he  has  not  set  foot  in  it.  And  I  know 
that  he  has  intria-ued  with  a  former  agent  of  the 
bureau  of  Foreign  Affairs."  This  accusation  could 
only  have  come  from  the  American  Minister  and 
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs — from  Gouverneur 
Morris  and  Deforgues.  Genet  was  the  only  agent 
of  Deforgues'  office  with  whom  Paine  could  possi- 
bly have  been  connected  ;  and  what  that  connec- 
tion was  the  reader  knows.  That  accusation  is 
associated  with  the  terrorist's  charge  that  Paine 
had  declined  to  unite  with  the  murderous  decrees 
of  the  Convention. 

After  the  speech  of  Bourdon  de  I'Oise,  Benta- 
bole  moved  the  "  exclusion  of  foreigners  from 
every  public  function  during  the  war."  Bentabole 
was  a  leading  member  of  the  Committee  of  General 


96 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Surety.  "  The  Assembly,"  adds  The  Moniteur, 
"  decreed  that  no  foreigner  should  be  admitted  to 
represent  the  French  people."  The  Committee  of 
General  Surety  assumed  the  right  to  regard  Paine 
as  an  Englishman  ;  and  as  such  out  of  the  Conven- 
tion, and  consequently  under  the  law  of  June 
against  aliens  of  hostile  nations.  He  was  arrested 
next  day,  and  on  December  28th  committed  to  the 
Luxembourg  prison. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


A  TESTIMONY  UNDER  THE  GUILLOTINE. 

While  Paine  was  in  prison  the  English  gentry 
were  gladdened  by  a  rumor  that  he  had  been  guil- 
lotined, and  a  libellous  leaflet  of  "  The  Last  Dying 
Words  of  Thomas  Paine  "  appeared  in  London. 
Paine  was  no  less  confident  than  his  enemies  that 
his  execution  was  certain — after  the  denunciation  in 
Amar's  report,  October  3d — and  did  indeed  utter 
what  may  be  regarded  as  his  dying  words — "The 
Age  of  Reason."  This  was  the  task  which  he  had 
from  year  to  year  adjourned  to  his  maturest  powers, 
and  to  it  he  dedicates  what  brief  remnant  of  life 
may  await  him.  That  completed,  it  will  be  time 
to  die  with  his  comrades,  awakened  by  his  pen  to  a 
dawn  now  red  with  their  blood. 

The  last  letter  I  find  written  from  the  old  Pom- 
padour mansion  is  to  Jefferson,  under  date  of  Oc- 
tober 20th  : 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  wrote  you  by  Captain  Dominick  who  was  to 
sail  from  Havre  about  the  20th  of  this  month.  This  will  prob- 
ably be  brought  you  by  Mr.  Barlow  or  Col.  Oswald.  Since 
my  letter  by  Dominick  I  am  every  day  more  convinced  and 
impressed  with  the  propriety  of  Congress  sending  Com- 
missioners to  Europe  to  confer  with  the  Ministers  of  the 
Jesuitical  Powers  on  the  means  of  terminating  the  war.  The 


98 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 


enclosed  printed  paper  will  shew  there  are  a  variety  of  sub- 
jects to  be  taken  into  consideration  which  did  not  appear  at 
first,  all  of  which  have  some  tendency  to  put  an  end  to  the 
war.  I  see  not  how  this  war  is  to  terminate  if  some  inter- 
mediate power  does  not  step  forward.  There  is  now  no  pros- 
pect that  France  can  carry  revolutions  thro'  Europe  on  the 
one  hand,  or  that  the  combined  powers  can  conquer  France 
on  the  other  hand.  It  is  a  sort  of  defensive  War  on  both  sides. 
This  being  the  case  how  is  the  War  to  close  ?  Neither  side 
will  ask  for  peace  though  each  may  wish  it.  I  believe  that 
England  and  Holland  are  tired  of  the  war.  Their  Commerce 
and  Manufactures  have  suffered  most  exceedingly — and  besides 
this  it  is  to  them  a  war  without  an  object.  Russia  keeps  her- 
self at  a  distance.  I  cannot  help  repeating  my  wish  that  Con- 
gress would  send  Commissioners,  and  I  wish  also  that  yourself 
would  venture  once  more  across  the  Ocean  as  one  of  them. 
If  the  Commissioners  rendezvous  at  Holland  they  would  then 
know  what  steps  to  take.  They  could  call  Mr.  Pinckney  to 
their  Councils,  and  it  would  be  of  use,  on  many  accounts,  that 
one  of  them  should  come  over  from  Holland  to  France.  Per- 
haps a  long  truce,  were  it  proposed  by  the  neutral  Powers, 
would  have  all  the  effects  of  a  Peace,  without  the  difficulties 
attending  the  adjustment  of  all  the  forms  of  Peace. — Yours 
affectionately  Thomas  Paine."  ' 

Thus  has  finally  faded  the  dream  of  Paine's  life 
— an  international  republic. 

It  is  notable  that  in  this  letter  Paine  makes  no 
mention  of  his  own  danger.  He  may  have  done  so 
in  the  previous  letter,  unfound,  to  which  he  alludes. 
Why  he  made  no  attempt  to  escape  after  Amar's 
report  seems  a  mystery,  especially  as  he  was  assist- 
ing others  to  leave  the  country.  Two  of  his  friends, 
Johnson  and  Choppin — the  last  to  part  from  him 
in  the  old  garden, — escaped  to  Switzerland.  John- 

'  I  am  indebted  for  this  letter  to  Dr.  John  S.  H.  Fogg,  of  Boston.  The 
letter  is  endorsed  by  Jefferson,  "  Rec'd  Mar.  3."  [i794-] 


1793]  -4    TESTIMONY  UNDER  THE  GUILLOTINE.  99 


son  will  be  remembered  as  the  young  man  who 
attempted  suicide  on  hearing  of  Marat's  menaces 
against  Paine.  Writing  to  Lady  Smith  of  these 
two  friends,  he  says  : 

"  He  [Johnson]  recovered,  and  being  anxious  to  get  out  of 
France,  a  passport  was  obtained  for  him  and  Mr.  Choppin  ; 
they  received  it  late  in  the  evening,  and  set  off  the  next  morn- 
ing for  Basle,  before  four,  from  which  place  I  had  a  letter 
from  them,  highly  pleased  with  their  escape  from  France, 
into  which  they  had  entered  with  an  enthusiasm  of  patriotic 
devotion.  Ah,  France  !  thou  hast  ruined  the  character  of  a 
revolution  virtuously  begun,  and  destroyed  those  who  pro- 
duced it.  I  might  also  say  like  Job's  servant,  '  and  I  only  am 
escaped.' 

"  Two  days  after  they  were  gone  I  heard  a  rapping  at  the 
gate,  and  looking  out  of  the  window  of  the  bedroom  I  saw  the 
landlord  going  with  the  candle  to  the  gate,  which  he  opened  ; 
and  a  guard  with  muskets  and  fixed  bayonets  entered.  I  went 
to  bed  again  and  made  up  my  mind  for  prison,  for  I  was  the 
only  lodger.  It  was  a  guard  to  take  up  Johnson  and  Choppin, 
but,  I  thank  God,  they  were  out  of  their  reach. 

"  The  guard  came  about  a  month  after,  in  the  night,  and 
took  away  the  landlord,  Georgeit.  And  the  scene  in  the  house 
finished  with  the  arrestation  of  myself.  This  was  soon  after 
you  called  on  me,  and  sorry  I  was  that  it  was  not  in  my 
power  to  render  to  Sir  [Robert  Smith]  the  service  that  you 
asked." 

All  then  had  fled.  Even  the  old  landlord 
had  been  arrested.  In  the  wintry  garden  this  lone 
man — in  whose  brain  and  heart  the  republic  and 
the  religion  of  humanity  have  their  abode — moves 
companionless.  In  the  great  mansion,  where  once 
Madame  de  Pompadour  glittered  amid  her  cour- 
tiers, where  in  the  past  summer  gathered  the  Round 
Table  of   great-hearted  gentlemen    and  ladies, 


lOO 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


['793 


Thomas  Paine  sits  through  the  watches  of  the  night 
at  his  devout  task/ 

"  My  friends  were  falling  as  fast  as  the  guillotine  could  cut 
their  heads  off,  and  as  I  expected,  every  day,  the  same  fate,  I 
resolved  to  begin  my  work.  I  appeared  to  myself  to  be  on 
my  death  bed,  for  death  was  on  every  side  of  me,  and  I  had  no 
time  to  lose.  This  accounts  for  my  writing  at  the  time  I  did, 
and  so  nicely  did  the  time  and  intention  meet,  that  I  had  not 
finished  the  first  part  of  the  work  more  than  six  hours  before 
I  was  arrested  and  taken  to  prison.  The  people  of  France 
were  running  headlong  into  atheism,  and  I  had  the  work  trans- 
lated in  their  own  language,  to  stop  them  in  that  career, 
and  fix  them  to  the  first  article  of  every  man's  creed,  who  has 
any  creed  at  all — /  believe  in  God. "  ' 

The  second  Christmas  of  the  new  republican  era 
dawns.  Where  is  the  vision  that  has  led  this  way- 
worn pilgrim  ?  Where  the  star  he  has  followed  so 
long,  to  find  it  hovering  over  the  new  birth  of  hu- 
manity ?  It  may  have  been  on  that  day  that,  amid 
the  shades  of  his  slain  friends,  he  wrote,  as  with 

'  It  was  a  resumed  task.  Early  in  the  year  Paine  had  brought  to  his  col- 
league Lanthenas  a  manuscript  on  religion,  probably  entitled  "  The  Age  of 
Reason.''  Lanthenas  translated  it,  and  had  it  printed  in  French,  though  no 
trace  of  its  circulation  appears.  At  that  time  Lanthenas  may  have  appre- 
hended the  proscription  which  fell  on  him,  with  the  other  Girondins,  in 
May,  and  took  the  precaution  to  show  Paine's  essay  to  Couthon,  who,  with 
Robespierre,  had  religious  matters  particularly  in  charge.  Couthon  frowned 
on  the  work  and  on  Paine,  and  reproached  Lanthenas  for  translating  it. 
There  was  no  frown  more  formidable  than  that  of  Couthon,  and  the  essay 
(printed  only  in  French)  seems  to  have  been  suppressed.  At  the  close  of  the 
year  Paine  wrote  the  whole  work  di;  novo.  The  first  edition  in  English,  now 
before  me,  was  printed  in  Paris,  by  Barrois,  1794.  In  his  preface  to  Part 
II.,  Paine  implies  a  previous  draft  in  saying:  "  I  had  not  finished  it  more 
than  six  hours,  in  the  state  it  has  since  appeared,  before  a  guard  came,"  etc. 
(The  italics  are  mine.)  The  fact  of  the  early  translation  appears  in  a  letter 
of  Lanthenas  to  Merlin  de  Thionville. 

'  Letter  to  Samuel  Adams.  The  execution  of  the  Girondins  took  place 
on  October  31st. 


1793]    ^   TESTIMONY  UNDER  THE  GUILLOTINE.  101 

blood  about  to  be  shed,  the  tribute  to  one  that  was 
pierced  in  trying  to  benefit  mankind. 

"  Nothing  that  is  here  said  can  apply,  even  with  the  most 
distant  disrespect,  to  the  real  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
was  a  virtuous  and  amiable  man.  The  morality  that  he 
preached  and  practised  was  of  the  most  benevolent  kind  ;  and 
though  similar  systems  of  morality  had  been  preached  by  Con- 
fucius, and  by  some  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  many  years 
before,  by  the  Quakers  since,  and  by  good  men  in  all 
ages,  it  has  not  been  exceeded  by  any.  .  .  .  He  preached 
most  excellent  morality,  and  the  equality  of  man  ;  but  he 
preached  also  against  the  corruption  and  avarice  of  the  Jewish 
priests,  and  this  brought  upon  him  the  hatred  and  vengeance 
of  the  whole  order  of  priesthood.  The  accusation  which  those 
priests  brought  against  him  was  that  of  sedition  and  conspiracy 
against  the  Roman  government,  to  which  the  Jews  were  then 
subject  and  tributary  ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  Ro- 
man government  might  have  some  secret  apprehension  of  the 
effect  of  his  doctrine,  as  well  as  the  Jewish  priests  ;  neither  is 
it  improbable  that  Jesus  Christ  had  in  contemplation  the  de- 
livery of  the  Jewish  nation  from  the  bondage  of  the  Romans. 
Between  the  two,  however,  this  virtuous  reformer  and  religion- 
ist lost  his  life.  .  .  .  He  was  the  son  of  God  in  like  manner 
that  every  other  person  is — for  the  Creator  is  the  Father  of  All. 
.  .  .  Jesus  Christ  founded  no  new  system.  He  called  men 
to  the  practice  of  moral  virtues,  and  the  belief  of  one  God. 
The  great  trait  in  his  character  is  philanthropy." 

Many  Christmas  sermons  were  preached  in  i  793, 
but  probably  all  of  them  together  do  not  contain 
so  much  recognition  of  the  humanity  of  Jesus  as 
these  paragraphs  of  Paine.  The  Christmas  bells 
ring  in  the  false,  but  shall  also  ring  in  the  true. 
While  he  is  writing,  on  that  Christmas  night,  word 
comes  that  he  has  been  denounced  by  Bourdoji  de 
rOise,  and  expelled  from  the  Convention.  He 
now  enters  the  Dark  Valley.    "  Conceiving,  after 


I02  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i793 

this,  that  I  had  but  a  few  days  of  liberty  I  sat 
down,  and  brought  the  work  to  a  close  as  speedily 
as  possible." 

In  the  "Age  of  Reason"  there  is  a  page  of  personal 
recollections.  I  have  a  feeling  that  this  little  epi- 
sode marks  the  hour  when  Paine  was  told  of  his 
doom.  From  this  overshadowed  Christmas,  likely 
to  be  his  last,  the  lonely  heart — ^as  loving  a  heart 
as  ever  beat — here  wanders  across  tempestuous 
years  to  his  early  Norfolkshire  home.  There  is  a 
grateful  remembrance  of  the  Quaker  meeting,  the 
parental  care,  the  Grammar  School  ;  of  his  pious 
aunt  who  read  him  a  printed  sermon,  and  the  gar- 
den steps  where  he  pondered  what  he  had  just 
heard, — a  Father  demanding  his  Son's  death  for 
the  sake  of  making  mankind  happier  and  better. 
He  "  perfectly  recollects  the  spot"  in  the  garden 
where,  even  then,  but  seven  or  eight  years  of  age, 
he  felt  sure  a  man  would  be  executed  for  doing  such 
a  thing,  and  that  God  was  too  good  to  act  in  that 
way.  So  clearly  come  out  the  scenes  of  childhood 
under  the  shadow  of  death. 

He  probably  had  an  intimation  on  December 
27th  that  he  would  be  arrested  that  night.  The 
place  of  his  abode,  though  well  known  to  the  au- 
thorities, was  not  in  the  Convention's  Almanach, 
Officially,  therefore,  his  residence  was  still  in  the 
Passage  des  Petits  Peres.  There  the  officers  would 
seek  him,  and  there  he  should  be  found.  "  For 
that  night  only  he  sought  a  lodging  there,"  reported 
the  officers  afterwards.  He  may  have  feared,  too, 
that  his  manuscript  would  be  destroyed  if  he  were 
taken  in  his  residence. 


1793]    ^   TESTIMONY  UNDER  THE  GUILLOTINE.  103 


His  hours  are  here  traceable.  On  the  evening 
of  December  27th,  in  the  old  mansion,  Paine 
reaches  the  last  page  of  the  "Age  of  Reason."  They 
who  have  supposed  him  an  atheist,  may  search  as  far 
as  Job,  who  said  "  Though  He  slay  me  I  will  trust  in 
Him,"  before  finding  an  author  who,  caught  in  the 
cruel  machinery  of  destructive  nature,  could  write 
that  last  page. 

"  The  creation  we  behold  is  the  real  and  ever  existing 
word  of  God,  in  which  we  cannot  be  deceived.  It  proclaim- 
eth  his  power,  it  demonstrates  his  wisdom,  it  manifests  his 
goodness  and  beneficence.  The  moral  duty  of  man  consists 
in  imitating  the  moral  goodness  and  beneficence  of  God  mani- 
fested in  the  creation  towards  all  his  creatures.  That  seeing, 
as  we  daily  do,  the  goodness  of  God  to  all  men,  it  is  an  ex- 
ample calling  upon  all  men  to  practise  the  same  towards  each 
other,  and  consequently  that  everything  of  persecution  and 
revenge  between  man  and  man,  and  everything  of  cruelty  to 
animals,  is  a  violation  of  moral  duty." 

In  what  "Israel  "  is  greater  faith  found?  Hav- 
ing written  these  words,  the  pen  drops  from  our 
world-wanderer's  hand.  It  is  nine  o'clock  of  the 
night.  He  will  now  go  and  bend  his  neck  under 
the  decree  of  the  Convention — provided  by  "  the 
goodness  of  God  to  all  men."  Through  the  Fau- 
bourg, past  Porte  St.  Martin,  to  the  Rue  Richelieu, 
to  the  Passage  des  Petits  Peres,  he  walks  in  the 
wintry  night.  In  the  house  where  he  wrote  his 
appeal  that  the  Convention  would  slay  not  the  man 
in  destroying  the  monarch,  he  asks  a  lodging  "  for 
that  night  only." 

As  he  lays  his  head  on  the  pillow,  it  is  no  doubt 
with  a  grateful  feeling  that  the  good  God  has  pro- 
longed his  freedom  long  enough  to  finish  a  defence 


I04  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i795 

of  true  religion  from  its  degradation  by  supersti- 
tion or  destruction  by  atheism, — these,  as  he  de- 
clares, being  the  two  purposes  of  his  work.  It  was 
providently  if  not  providentially  timed.  "  I  had 
not  finished  it  more  than  six  hours,  in  the  state  it 
has  since  appeared,  before  a  guard  came,  about 
three  in  the  morning,  with  an  order,  signed  by  the 
two  Committees  of  Public  Safety  and  Surety  Gen- 
eral, for  putting  me  in  arrestation  as  a  foreigner, 
and  conveying  me  to  the  prison  of  the  Luxem- 
bourg," 

The  following  documents  are  translated  for  this 
work  from  the  originals  in  the  National  Archives 
of  France. 

"National  Convention. 

"  Committee  of  General  Surety  and  Surveillance  of  the 
National  Convention. 

"On  the  7th  Nivose  [December  27th]  of  the  2d  year  of  the 
French  Republic,  one  and  indivisible. 

"  To  THE  Deputies  : 

"  The  Committee  resolves,  that  the  persons  named  Thomas 
Paine  and  Anacharsis  Clootz,  formerly  Deputies  to  the  Na- 
tional Convention,  be  arrested  and  imprisoned,  as  a  measure 
of  General  Surety  ;  that  an  examination  be  made  of  their 
papers,  and  those  found  suspicious  put  under  seal  and  brought 
to  the  Committee  of  General  Surety. 

"  Citizens  Jean  Baptiste  Martin  and  Lamy,  bearers  of  the 
present  decree  are  empowered  to  execute  it, — for  which  they 
ask  the  help  of  the  Civil  authorities  and,  if  need  be,  of  the  army. 

"  The  representatives  of  the  nation,  members  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  General  Surety — Signed  :  M.  Bayle,  Voulland,  Jagot, 
Amar,  Vadier,  Elie  Lacoste,  Guffroy,  Louis  (du  bas  Rhin) 
La  Vicomterie,  Panis." 

"  This  day,  the  8th  Nivose  of  the  2d  year  of  the  French 
Republic,  one  and  indivisible,  to  execute  and  fulfil  the  order 


17931    A   TESTIMONY  UNDER  THE  GUILLOTINE.  105 


given  us,  we  have  gone  to  the  residence  of  Citizen  Thomas 
Paine,  Passage  des  Petits  Peres,  number  seven,  Philadelphia 
House.  Having  requested  the  Commander  of  the  [Police] 
post,  William  Tell  Section,  to  have  us  escorted,  according  to 
the  order  we  showed  him,  he  obeyed  by  assigning  us  four 
privates  and  a  corporal,  to  search  the  above-said  lodging ; 
where  we  requested  the  porter  to  open  the  door,  and  asked 
him  whether  he  knew  all  who  lodged  there  ;  and  as  he  did  not 
affirm  it,  we  desired  him  to  take  us  to  the  principal  agent, 
which  he  did  ;  having  come  to  the  said  agent,  we  asked  him 
if  he  knew  by  name  all  the  persons  to  whom  he  rented  lod- 
gings ;  after  having  repeated  to  him  the  name  mentioned  in 
our  order,  he  replied  to  us,  that  he  had  come  to  ask  him  a 
lodging  for  that  night  only  ;  which  being  ascertained,  we  asked 
him  to  conduct  us  to  the  bedroom  of  Citizen  Thomas  Paine, 
where  we  arrived  ;  then  seeing  we  could  not  be  understood  by 
him,  an  American,  we  begged  the  manager  of  the  house,  who 
knows  his  language,  to  kindly  interpret  for  him,  giving  him 
notice  of  the  order  of  which  we  were  bearers  ;  whereupon 
the  said  Citizen  Thomas  Paine  submitted  to  be  taken  to  Rue 
Jacob,  Great  Britain  Hotel,  which  he  declared  through  his 
interpreter  to  be  the  place  where  he  had  his  papers  ;  having 
recognized  that  his  lodging  contained  none  of  them,  we 
accompanied  the  said  Thomas  Paine  and  his  interpreter  to 
Great  Britain  Hotel,  Rue  Jacob,  Unity  Section  ;  the  present 
minutes  closed,  after  being  read  before  the  undersigned. 
"(Signed): 

Thomas  Paine.  J.  B.  Martin. 

DoRL^,  Commissary. 
GiLLET,  Commissary. 
F.  Dellanay. 

AcHiLLE  AuDiBERT,  Witness.' 
Lamy." 

"  And  as  it  was  about  seven  or  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  of 
this  day  8th  Nivose,  being  worn  out  with  fatigue,  and  forced  to 
take  some  food,  we  postponed  the  end  of  our  proceeding  till 
eleven  o'clock  of  the  same  day,  when,  desiring  to  finish  it,  we 

'  It  will  be  remembered  that  Audibert  had  carried  to  London  Paine's  in- 
vitation to  the  Convention. 


106  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAIA^E.  [i793 

went  with  Citizen  Thomas  Paine  to  Britain  House,  where  we 
found  Citizen  Barlow,  whom  Citizen  Thomas  Paine  informed 
that  we,  the  Commissaries,  were  come  to  look  into  the  papers, 
which  he  said  were  at  his  house,  as  announced  in  our  preced- 
ing paragraph  through  Citizen  Dellanay,  his  interpreter  ;  We, 
Commissary  of  the  Section  of  the  Unity,  undersigned,  with 
the  Citizens  order-bearers,  requested  Citizen  Barlow  to  declare 
whether  there  were  in  his  house,  any  papers  or  correspondence 
belonging  to  Citizen  Thomas  Paine  ;  on  which,  complying  with 
our  request,  he  declared  there  did  not  exist  any  ;  but  wishing 
to  leave  no  doubt  on  our  way  of  conducting  the  matter,  we  did 
not  think  it  right  to  rely  on  what  he  said  ;  resolving,  on  the 
contrary,  to  ascertain  by  all  legal  ways  that  there  did  not  exist 
any,  we  requested  Citizen  Barlow  to  open  for  us  all  his  cup- 
boards ;  which  he  did,  and  after  having  visited  them,  we,  the 
abovesaid  Commissary,  always  in  the  presence  of  Citizen  Thomas 
Paine,  recognized  that  there  existed  no  papers  belonging  to  him; 
we  also  perceived  that  it  was  a  subterfuge  on  the  part  of  Citi- 
zen Thomas  Paine  who  wished  only  to  transfer  himself  to  the 
house  of  Citizen  Barlow,  his  native  friend  ( son  ami  natal)  whom 
we  invited  to  ask  of  Citizen  Thomas  Paine  his  usual  place  of 
abode  ;  and  the  latter  seemed  to  wish  that  his  friend  might 
accompany  him  and  be  present  at  the  examination  of  his 
papers.  Which  we,  the  said  Commissary  granted  him,  as 
Citizen  Barlow  could  be  of  help  to  us,  together  with  Citizen 
Etienne  Thomas  Dessous,  interpreter  for  the  English  language, 
and  Deputy  Secretary  to  the  Committee  of  General  Surety  of 
the  National  Convention,  whom  we  called,  in  passing  by  the 
said  Committee,  to  accompany  us  to  the  true  lodging  of  the 
said  Paine,  Faubourg  du  Nord,  Nro.  63.  At  which  place  we 
entered  his  rooms,  and  gathered  in  the  Sitting-room  all  the 
papers  found  in  the  other  rooms  of  the  said  apartment.  The 
said  Sitting-room  receives  light  from  three  windows,  looking, 
one  on  the  Garden  and  the  two  others  on  the  Courtyard  ;  and 
after  the  most  scrupulous  examination  of  all  the  papers,  that 
we  had  there  gathered,  none  of  them  has  been  found  suspi- 
cious, neither  in  French  nor  in  English,  according  to  what  was 
affirmed  to  us  by  Citizen  Dessous  our  interpreter  who  signed 
with  us,  and  Citizen  Thomas  Paine  ;  and  we,  the  undersigned 
Commissary,  resolved  that  no  seal  should  be  placed,  after  the 


l79-l]    A    rF.STIMONY  UNDER  THE  GUILLOTINE.  lOJ 


examination  mentioned,  and  closed  the  said  minutes,  which  we 
declare  to  contain  the  truth.    Drawn  up  at  the  residence,  and 
closed  at  4  p.m.  in  the  day  and  year  abovenamed  ;  and  we 
have  all  signed  after  having  read  the  minutes. 
"  (Signed)  : 

Thomas  Paine.         Joel  Barlow. 

DoRLE,  Commissary.  Gillet,  Commissary. 

Dessous,  J.  B.  Martin.  Lamy. 
"  And  after  having  signed  we  have  requested,  according  to 
the  order  of  the  Committee  of  General  Surety  of  the  National 
Convention,  Citizen  Thomas  Paine  to  follow  us,  to  be  led  to 
jail ;  to  which  he  complied  without  any  difficulty,  and  he  has 
signed  with  us  : 

Thomas  Paine.  J.  B.  Martin. 

Dorle,  Commissary.  Lamy. 
Gillett,  Commissary." 

"  I  have  received  from  the  Citizens  Martin  and  Lamy,  Depu- 
ty-Secretaries to  the  Committee  of  General  Surety  of  the 
National  Convention,  the  Citizens  Thomas  Paine  and  Ana- 
charsis  Clootz,  formerly  Deputies  ;  by  order  of  the  said 
Committee. 

"  At  the  Luxembourg,  this  day  8th  Nivose,  2nd  year  of  the 
French  Republic,  One  and  Indivisible. 

"  Signed  :  Benoit,  Concierge." 

"  Foreign  Office — Received  the  12th  Ventose  [March  2d]. 
Sent  to  the  Committees  of  General  Surety  and  Public  Safety 
the  8th  Pluviose  [January  27th]  this  2d  year  of  the  French 
Republic,  One  and  indivisible. 

"  Signed  :  Bassol,  Secretary." 

"  Citizens  Legislators  ! — The  French  nation  has,  by  a 
universal  decree,  invited  to  France  one  of  our  countrymen, 
most  worthy  of  honor,  namely,  Thomas  Paine,  one  of  the 
political  founders  of  the  independence  and  of  the  Republic  of 
America. 

"  Our  experience  of  twenty  years  has  taught  America  to 
know  and  esteem  his  public  virtues  and  the  invaluable  services 
he  rendered  her. 

"  Persuaded  that  his  character  of  foreigner  and  ex-Deputy  is 
the  only  cause  of  his  provisional  imprisonment,  we  come  in  the 


1 08  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l794 

name  of  our  country  (and  we  feel  sure  she  will  be  grateful  to 
us  for  it),  we  come  to  you,  Legislators,  to  reclaim  our  friend^ 
our  countryman,  that  he  may  sail  with  us  for  America,  where 
he  will  be  received  with  open  arms. 

"  If  it  were  necessary  to  say  more  in  support  of  the  Petition 
which,  as  friends  and  allies  of  the  French  Republic,  we  submit 
to  her  representatives,  to  obtain  the  liberation  of  one  of  the 
most  earnest  and  faithful  apostles  of  liberty,  we  would  beseech 
the  National  Convention,  for  the  sake  of  all  that  is  dear  to  the 
glory  and  to  the  heart  of  freemen,  not  to  give  a  cause  of  joy 
and  triumph  to  the  allied  tyrants  of  Europe,  and  above  all 
to  the  despotism  of  Great  Britain,  which  did  not  blush  to  out- 
law this  courageous  and  virtuous  defender  of  Liberty. 

"  But  their  insolent  joy  will  be  of  short  duration  ;  for  we 
have  the  intimate  persuasion  that  you  will  not  keep  longer  in 
the  bonds  of  painful  captivity  the  man  whose  courageous  and 
energetic  pen  did  so  much  to  free  the  Americans,  and  whose 
intentions  we  have  no  doubt  whatever  were  to  render  the  same 
services  to  the  French  Republic.  Yes,  we  feel  convinced  that 
his  principles  and  views  were  pure,  and  in  that  regard  he  is 
entitled  to  the  indulgence  due  to  human  fallibility,  and  to  the 
respect  due  to  rectitude  of  heart  ;  and  we  hold  all  the  more 
firmly  our  opinion  of  his  innocence,  inasmuch  as  we  are  in- 
formed that  after  a  scrupulous  examination  of  his  papers,  made 
by  order  of  the  Committee  of  General  Surety,  instead  of  any- 
thing to  his  charge,  enough  has  been  found  rather  to  corrobo- 
rate the  purity  of  his  principles  in  politics  and  morals. 

"As  a  countryman  of  ours,  as  a  man  above  all  so  dear  to 
the  Americans,  who  like  yourselves  are  earnest  friends  of 
Liberty,  we  ask  you,  in  the  name  of  that  goddess  cherished  of  the 
only  two  Republics  of  the  World,  to  give  back  Thomas  Paine 
to  his  brethren  and  permit  us  to  take  him  to  his  country  which 
is  also  ours. 

"  If  you  require  it,  Citizens  Representatives,  we  shall  make 
ourselves  warrant  and  security  for  his  conduct  in  France  during 
the  short  stay  he  may  make  in  this  land. 

"  Signed  : 

W.  Jackson,  of  Philadelphia  J.  Russell,  of  Boston.  Peter 
Whiteside,  of  Philadelphia.  Henry  Johnson,  of  Boston. 
Thomas  Carter,  of  Newbury  Port.    James  Cooper  of  Phila- 


1794]    ^   TESTIMONY  UNDER  THE  GUILLOTINE.  109 


delphia.  John  Willert  Billopp,  of  New  York.  Thomas 
Waters  Griffith,  of  Baltimore.  Th.  Ramsden,  of  Boston. 
Samuel  P.  Broome,  of  New  York.  A.  Meadenworth,  of  Con- 
necticut. Joel  Barlow,  of  Connecticut.  Michael  Alcorn,  of 
Philadelphia.  M.  Onealy,  of  Baltimore.  John  McPherson,  of 
Alexandria  [Va.].  William  Haskins,  of  Boston.  J.  Gregory, 
of  Petersburg,  Virginia.   James  Ingraham,  of  Boston."  ' 

The  following  answer  to  the  petitioning  Ameri- 
cans was  given  by  Vadier,  then  president  of  the 
Convention. 

"  Citizens  :  The  brave  Americans  are  our  brothers  in  liberty  ; 
like  us  they  have  broken  the  chains  of  despotism  ;  like  us  they 
have  sworn  the  destruction  of  kings  and  vowed  an  eternal 
hatred  to  tyrants  and  their  instruments.  From  this  identity  of 
principles  should  result  a  union  of  the  two  nations  forever  un- 
alterable. If  the  tree  of  liberty  already  flourishes  in  the  two 
hemispheres,  that  of  commerce  should,  by  this  happy  alliance, 
cover  the  poles  with  its  fruitful  branches.  It  is  for  France,  it ' 
is  for  the  United  States,  to  combat  and  lay  low,  in  concert, 
these  proud  islanders,  these  insolent  dominators  of  the  sea  and 
the  commerce  of  nations.  When  the  sceptre  of  despotism  is 
falling  from  the  criminal  hand  of  the  tyrants  of  the  earth,  it  is 
necessary  also  to  break  the  trident  which  emboldens  the  inso- 
lence of  these  corsairs  of  Albion,  these  modern  Carthaginians. 
It  is  time  to  repress  the  audacity  and  mercantile  avarice  of 
these  pirate  tyrants  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  commerce  of  nations. 

"  You  demand  of  us,  citizens,  the  liberty  of  Thomas  Paine  ; 
you  wish  to  restore  to  your  hearths  this  defender  of  the  rights 
of  man.  One  can  only  applaud  this  generous  movement. 
Thomas  Paine  is  a  native  of  England  ;  this  is  undoubtedly 
enough  to  apply  to  him  the  measures  of  security  prescribed  by 
the  revolutionary  laws.  It  may  be  added,  citizens,  that  if 
Thomas  Paine  has  been  the  apostle  of  liberty,  if  he  has  power- 
fully co-operated  with  the  American  Revolution,  his  genius 
has  not  understood  that  which  has  regenerated  France  ;  he  has 
regarded  the  system  only  in  accordance  with  the  illusions  with 

'  The  preceding  documents  connected  with  the  arrest  are  in  the  Archives 
Nationales,  F.  4641. 


no  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794 

which  the  false  friends  of  our  revolution  have  invested  it.  You 
must  with  us  deplore  an  error  little  reconcilable  with  the  prin- 
ciples admired  in  the  justly  esteemed  works  of  this  republican 
author. 

"  The  National  Convention  will  take  into  consideration  the 
object  of  your  petition,  and  invites  you  to  its  sessions." 

A  memorandum  adds  :  "  Reference  of  this  peti- 
tion is  decreed  to  the  Committees  of  Pubhc  Safety 
and  General  Surety,  united." 

It  is  said  that  Paine  sent  an  appeal  for  interven- 
tion to  the  Cordeliers  Club,  and  that  their  only 
reply  was  to  return  to  him  a  copy  of  his  speech  in 
favor  of  preserving  the  life  of  Louis  XVI.  This  I 
have  not  been  able  to  verify. 

On  leaving  his  house  for  prison,  Paine  entrusted 
to  Joel  Barlow  the  manuscript  of  the  "  Age  of 
Reason,"  to  be  conveyed  to  the  printer.  This  was 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  guard,  whose  kindness 
is  mentioned  by  Paine. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER. 

Before  resuming  the  history  of  the  conspiracy 
against  Paine  it  is  necessary  to  return  a  little  on 
our  steps.  For  a  year  after  the  fall  of  monarchy 
in  France  (August  lo,  1792),  the  real  American 
Minister  there  was  Paine,  whether  for  Americans 
or  for  the  French  Executive.  The  Ministry  would 
not  confer  with  a  hostile  and  presumably  decapi- 
tated agent,  like  Morris.  The  reader  has  (Chaps. 
IV.  and  v.,  Vol.  II.)  evidence  of  their  consultations 
with  Paine.  Those  communications  of  Paine  were 
utilized  in  Robespierre's  report  to  the  Convention, 
November  17,  1793,  on  the  foreign  relations  of 
France.  It  was  inspired  by  the  humiliating  tidings 
that  Genet  in  America  had  reinforced  the  European 
intrigues  to  detach  Washington  from  France.  The 
President  had  demanded  Genet's  recall,  had  issued 
a  proclamation  of  "  impartiality  "  between  France 
and  her  foes,  and  had  not  yet  decided  whether  the 
treaty  formed  with  Louis  XVI.  should  survive  his 
death.    And  Morris  was  not  recalled  ! 

In  his  report  Robespierre  makes  a  solemn  appeal 
to  the  "  brave  Americans."  Was  it  "  that  crowned 
automaton  called  Louis  XVI."  who  helped  to 
rescue  them  from  the  oppressor's  yoke,  or  our  arm 

I II 


112 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


['794 


and  armies  ?  Was  it  his  money  sent  over  or  the 
taxes  of  French  labor  ?  He  declares  that  the 
Republic  has  been  treacherously  compromised  in 
America. 

"  By  a  strange  fatality  the  Republic  finds  itself  still  repre- 
sented among  their  allies  by  agents  of  the  traitors  she  has 
punished  :  Brissot's  brother-in-law  is  Consul-General  there  ; 
another  man,  named  Genet,  sent  by  Lebrun  and  Brissot  to 
Philadelphia  as  plenipotentiary  agent,  has  faithfully  fulfilled 
the  views  and  instructions  of  the  faction  that  appointed 
him." 

The  result  is  that  "  parallel  intrigues  "  are  ob- 
servable— one  aiming  to  bring  France  under  the 
league,  the  other  to  break  up  the  American 
republic  into  parts/ 

In  this  idea  of  "  parallel  intrigues "  the  irre- 
movable Morris  is  discoverable.  It  is  the  reap- 
pearance of  what  he  had  said  to  Deforgues  about 
the  simultaneous  sedition  in  America  (Genet's)  and 
"  influence  in  their  affairs  from  the  other  side  of 
the  channel  "  (Paine's).  There  was  not,  however, 
in  Robespierre's  report  any  word  that  might  be  con- 
strued into  a  suspicion  of  Paine  ;  on  the  contrary, 
he  declares  the  Convention  now  pure.  The  Con- 
vention instructed  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
to  provide  for  strictest  fulfilment  of  its  treaties  with 
America,  and  caution  to  its  agents  to  respect  the 
government  and  territory  of  its  allies.  The  first 
necessary  step  was  to  respect  the  President's  Min- 
ister, Gouverneur  Morris,  however  odious  he  might 
be,  since  it  would  be  on  his  representations  that  the 
continuance  of   France's  one  important  alliance 

'  "  Hist.  Pari.,"  xxx.,  p.  224. 


1794]  A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER.  II3 

might  depend.  Morris  played  cleverly  on  that 
string  ;  he  hinted  dangers  that  did  not  exist,  and 
dangled  promises  never  to  be  fulfilled.  He  was 
master  of  the  situation.  The  unofficial  Minister 
who  had  practically  superseded  him  for  a  year  was 
now  easily  locked  up  in  the  Luxembourg. 

But  why  was  not  Paine  executed  ?  The  historic 
paradox  must  be  ventured  that  he  owed  his  re- 
prieve— his  life — to  Robespierre.  Robespierre  had 
Morris'  intercepted  letters  and  other  evidences  of 
his  treachery,  yet  as  Washington  insisted  on  him, 
and  the  alliance  was  at  stake,  he  must  be  obeyed. 
On  the  other  hand  were  evidences  of  Washington's 
friendship  for  Paine,  and  of  Jefferson's  intimacy 
with  him.  Time  must  therefore  be  allowed  for  the 
prisoner  to  communicate  with  the  President  and 
Secretary  of  State.  They  must  decide  between 
Paine  and  Morris.  It  was  only  after  ample  time 
had  passed,  and  no  word  about  Paine  came  from 
Washington  or  Jefferson,  while  Morris  still  held  his 
position,  that  Robespierre  entered  his  memorandum 
that  Paine  should  be  tried  before  the  revolutionary 
tribunal. 

Meanwhile  a  great  deal  happened,  some  of  which, 
as  Paine's  experiences  in  the  Luxembourg,  must 
be  deferred  to  a  further  chapter.  The  American 
Minister  had  his  triumph.  The  Americans  in 
Paris,  including  the  remaining  sea-captains,  who  had 
been  looking  to  Paine  as  their  Minister,  were  now 
to  discover  where  the  power  was  lodged.  Know- 
ing Morris'  hatred  for  Paine,  they  repaired  to  the 
Convention  with  their  petition.  Major  Jackson,  a 
well  known  officer  of  the  American  Revolution, 

Vol.  II.— 8 


114 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794 


who  headed  the  deputation  (which  included  every 
unofficial  American  in  Paris),  utilized  a  letter  of 
introduction  he  had  brought  from  Secretary  Jef- 
ferson to  Morris  by  giving  it  to  the  Committee  of 
General  Surety,  as  an  evidence  of  his  right  to  act 
in  the  emergency. 

Action  was  delayed  by  excitement  over  the  cele- 
bration of  the  first  anniversary  of  the  King's 
execution.  On  that  occasion  (January  21st)  the 
Convention  joined  the  Jacobin  Club  in  marching 
to  the  "  Place  de  la  Revolution,"  with  music  and 
banners  ;  there  the  portraits  of  kings  were  burned, 
an  act  of  accusation  against  all  the  kings  of  the 
earth  adopted,  and  a  fearfully  realistic  drama 
enacted.  By  a  prearrangement  unknown  to  the 
Convention  four  condemned  men  were  guillotined 
before  them.  The  Convention  recoiled,  and  insti- 
tuted an  inquisition  as  to  the  responsibility  for  this 
scene.  It  was  credited  to  the  Committee  of  Gen- 
eral Surety,  justly  no  doubt,  but  its  chief,  Vadier, 
managed  to  relieve  it  of  the  odium.  This  Vadier 
was  then  president  of  the  Convention.  He  was 
appropriately  selected  to  give  the  first  anniversary 
oration  on  the  King's  execution.  A  few  days  later 
it  fell  to  Vadier  to  address  the  eighteen  Americans 
at  the  bar  of  the  Convention  on  their  petition  for 
Paine's  release.  The  petition  and  petitioners  being 
referred  to  the  Committees  of  Public  Safety  and 
General  Surety  in  joint  session,  the  Americans 
were  there  answered,  by  Billaud-Varennes  it  was 
said,  "  that  their  reclamation  was  only  the  act 
of  individuals,  without  any  authority  from  the 
American  government." 


1794] 


A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER. 


"5 


This  was  a  plain  direction.  The  American  gov- 
ernment, whether  in  Paris  or  Philadelphia,  had 
Paine's  fate  in  its  hands. 

At  this  time  it  was  of  course  not  known  that 
Jefferson  had  retired  from  the  Cabinet.  To  him 
Paine  might  have  written,  but^ — sinister  coinci- 
dence ! — immediately  after  the  committees  had  re- 
ferred the  matter  to  the  American  government  an 
order  was  issued  cutting  off  all  communication 
between  prisoners  and  the  outside  world.  That 
Morris  had  something  to  do  with  this  is  suggested 
by  the  fact  that  he  was  allowed  to  correspond  with 
Paine  in  prison,  though  this  was  not  allowed  to 
his  successor,  Monroe.  However,  there  is,  unfor- 
tunately, no  need  to  repair  to  suspicions  for  the 
part  of  Gouverneur  Morris  in  this  affair.  His  first 
ministerial  mention  of  the  matter  to  Secretary  Jef- 
ferson is  dated  on  the  tragical  anniversary,  January 
2 1  St.  "  Lest  I  should  forget  it,"  he  says  of  this 
small  incident,  the  imprisonment  of  one  whom 
Congress  and  the  President  had  honored — 

"  Lest  I  should  forget  it,  I  must  mention  that  Thomas  Paine 
is  in  prison,  where  he  amuses  himself  with  publishing  a  pamphlet 
against  Jesus  Christ.  I  do  not  recollect  whether  I  mentioned 
to  you  that  he  would  have  been  executed  along  with  the  rest 
of  the  Brissotins  if  the  advance  party  had  not  viewed  him  with 
contempt.  I  incline  to  think  that  if  he  is  quiet  in  prison  he 
may  have  the  good  luck  to  be  forgotten,  whereas,  should  he  be 
brought  much  into  notice,  the  long  suspended  axe  might  fall 
on  him.  I  believe  he  thinks  that  I  ought  to  claim  him  as  an 
American  citizen  ;  but  considering  his  birth,  his  naturalization 
in  this  country,  and  the  place  he  filled,  I  doubt  much  the  right, 
and  I  am  sure  that  the  claim  would  be,  for  the  present  at  least, 
inexpedient  and  ineffectual." 


Il6  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l794 

Although  this  paragraph  is  introduced  in  such  a 
casual  way,  there  is  calculation  in  every  word. 
First  of  all,  however,  be  it  observed,  Morris  knows 
precisely  how  the  authorities  will  act  several  days 
before  they  have  been  appealed  to.  It  also  ap- 
pears that  if  Paine  was  not  executed  with  the 
Brissotins  on  October  31st,  it  was  not  due  to  any 
interference  on  his  part.  The  "  contempt  "  which 
saved  Paine  may  be  estimated  by  a  reference  to  the 
executive  consultations  with  him,  and  to  Amar's 
bitter  denunciation  of  him  (October  3d)  after  Mor- 
ris had  secretly  accused  this  contemptible  man  of 
influencing  the  Convention  and  helping  to  excite 
sedition  in  the  United  States.  In  the  next  place, 
Jefferson  is  admonished  that  if  he  would  save  his 
friend's  head  he  must  not  bring  the  matter  into 
notice.  The  government  at  Philadelphia  must, 
in  mercy  to  Paine,  remain  silent.  As  to  the 
"pamphlet  against  Jesus  Christ,"  my  reader  has 
already  perused  what  Paine  wrote  on  that  theme  in 
the  "  Age  of  Reason."  But  as  that  may  not  be 
so  likely  to  affect  freethinking  Jefferson,  Morris 
adds  the  falsehood  that  Paine  had  been  naturalized 
in  France.  The  reader  need  hardly  be  reminded 
that  if  an  application  by  the  American  Minister  for 
the  release  would  be  "  ineffectual,"  it  must  be  be- 
cause the  said  Minister  would  have  it  so.  Morris 
had  already  found,  as  he  tells  Washington,  that 
the  Ministry,  supposing  him  immovable,  were 
making  overtures  of  conciliation ;  and  none  can 
read  the  obsequious  letter  of  the  Foreign  Minister, 
Deforgues  (October  19,  1793),  without  knowing 
that  a  word  from  Morris  would  release  Paine.  The 


1 7 94 J  A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER.  II/ 

American  petitioners  had  indeed  been  referred  to 
their  own  government — that  is,  to  Morris. 

The  American  Minister's  version  of  what  had 
occurred  is  given  in  a  letter  to  Secretary  Jefferson, 
dated  March  6th  : 

"I  have  mentioned  Mr.  Paine's  confinement.  Major  Jack- 
son— who,  by  the  by,  has  not  given  me  a  letter  from  you  which 
he  says  was  merely  introductory,  but  left  it  with  the  Comitd  de 
SQrete  Generale,  as  a  kind  of  letter  of  credence — Major  Jack- 
son, relying  on  his  great  influence  with  the  leaders  here,  stepped 
forward  to  get  Mr.  Paine  out  of  jail,  and  with  several  other 
Americans,  has  presented  a  petition  to  that  effect,  which  was 
referred  to  that  Committee  and  the  Comite  de  Salut  Public. 
This  last,  I  understand,  slighted  the  application  as  totally 
irregular ;  and  some  time  afterwards  Mr.  Paine  wrote  me  a 
note  desiring  I  would  claim  him  as  an  American,  which  I 
accordingly  did,  though  contrary  to  my  judgment,  for  reasons 
mentioned  in  my  last.  The  Minister's  letter  to  me  of  the  ist 
Ventose,  of  which  I  enclose  a  copy,  contains  the  answer  to  my 
reclamation.  I  sent  a  copy  to  Mr.  Paine,  who  prepared  a  long 
answer,  and  sent  it  to  me  by  an  Englishman,  whom  I  did  not 
know.  I  told  him,  as  Mr.  Paine's  friend,  that  my  present 
opinion  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Minister,  but  I  might,  per- 
haps, see  occasion  to  change  it,  and  in  that  case,  if  Mr.  Paine 
wished  it,  I  would  go  on  with  the  claim,  but  that  it  would  be 
well  for  him  to  consider  the  result ;  that,  if  the  Government 
meant  to  release  him,  they  had  already  a  sufficient  ground  ; 
but  if  not,  I  could  only  push  them  to  bring  on  his  trial  for  the 
crimes  imputed  to  him  ;  seeing  that  whether  he  be  considered 
as  a  Frenchman,  or  as  an  American,  he  must  be  amenable  to 
the  tribunals  of  France  for  his  conduct  while  he  was  a  French- 
man, and  he  may  see  in  the  fate  of  the  Brissotins,  that  to  which 
he  is  exposed.  I  have  heard  no  more  of  the  affair  since  ;  but 
it  is  not  impossible  that  he  may  force  on  a  decision,  which,  as 
far  as  I  can  judge,  would  be  fatal  to  him  :  for  in  the  best  of  times 
he  had  a  larger  share  of  every  other  sense  than  common  sense, 
and  lately  the  intemperate  use  of  ardent  spirits  has,  I  am  told, 
considerably  impaired  the  small  stock  he  originally  possessed." 


Il8  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l794 

In  this  letter  the  following  incidental  points 
suggest  comment  : 

1.  "  Several  other  Americans."  The  petitioners 
for  Paine's  release  were  eighteen  in  number,  and 
seem  to  have  comprised  all  the  Americans  then 
left  in  Paris,  some  of  them  eminent. 

2.  "  The  crimes  imputed  to  him."  There  were 
none.  Paine  was  imprisoned  under  a  law  against 
"  foreigners."  Those  charged  with  his  arrest  re- 
ported that  his  papers  were  entirely  innocent.  The 
archives  of  France,  now  open  to  exploration,  prove 
that  no  offence  was  ever  imputed  to  him,  showing 
his  arrest  due  only  to  Morris'  insinuation  of  his 
being  objectionable  to  the  United  States.  By  this 
insinuation  ("  crimes  imputed  to  him  ")  Paine  was 
asserted  to  be  amenable  to  French  laws  for  matters 
with  which  the  United  States  would  of  course  have 
nothing  to  do,  and  of  which  nothing  could  be  known 
in  Philadelphia. 

3.  "  While  he  was  a  Frenchman."  Had  Paine 
ever  been  a  Frenchman,  he  was  one  when  Morris 
pretended  that  he  had  claimed  him  as  an  Ameri- 
can. But  Paine  had  been  excluded  from  the 
Convention  and  imprisoned  expressly  because 
he  was  not  a  Frenchman.  No  word  of  the 
Convention's  published  action  was  transmitted  by 
Morris. 

4.  "  The  fate  of  the  Brissotins,"  etc.  This 
of  course  would  frighten  Paine's  friends  by 
its  hint  of  a  French  hostility  to  him  which  did 
not  exist,  and  might  restrain  them  from  applying 
to  America  for  interference.  Paine  was  already 
restrained  by  the  new  order  preventing  him  from 


1794]  A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER. 


119 


communicating  with  any  one  except  the  American 
Minister. 

5.  "  Intemperate,"  etc.  This  is  mere  calumny. 
Since  the  brief  lapse  in  June,  1793,  when  over- 
whelmed by  the  arrest  of  his  friends,  Paine's  daily 
life  is  known  from  those  who  dwelt  with  him. 
During  the  months  preceding  his  arrest  he  wrote 
the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  ;  its  power,  if  alcoholic,  might 
have  recommended  his  cellar  to  Morris,  or  to  any 
man  living. 

So  much  for  the  insinuations  and  suggestiones 
falsi  in  Morris'  letter.  The  suppressions  of  fact 
are  more  deadly.  There  is  nothing  of  what  had 
really  happened  ;  nothing  of  the  eulogy  of  Paine  by 
the  President  of  the  Convention,  which  would  have 
been  a  commentary  on  what  Morris  had  said  of  the 
contempt  in  which  he  was  held ;  not  a  word  of  the 
fact  that  the  petitioners  were  reminded  by  the 
Committee  that  their  application  was  unofficial, — in 
other  words,  that  the  determination  on  Paine's  fate 
rested  with  Morris  himself.  This  Morris  hides 
under  the  phrase :  "  slighted  the  application  as 
totally  irregular." 

But  the  fatal  far-reaching  falsehood  of  Morris' 
letter  to  Jefferson  was  his  assertion  that  he  had 
claimed  Paine  as  an  American.  This  falsehood, 
told  to  Washington,  Jefferson,  Edmund  Randolph, 
paralyzed  all  action  in  America  in  Paine's  behalf  ; 
told  to  the  Americans  in  Paris,  it  paralyzed  further 
effort  of  their  own. 

The  actual  correspondence  between  Morris  and 
Deforgues  is  now  for  the  first  time  brought  to 
light. 


I20 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


MORRIS  TO  DEFORGUES. 

"  Paris,  14th  February  1794. 
"  Sir, — Thomas  Paine  has  just  applied  to  me  to  claim  him  as 
a  Citizen  of  the  United  States.  These  (I  believe)  are  the  facts 
which  relate  to  him.  He  was  born  in  England.  Having  be- 
come a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  he  acquired  great  celebrity 
there  through  his  revolutionary  writings.  In  consequence  he 
was  adopted  as  French  Citizen,  and  then  elected  Member  of 
the  Convention.  His  behaviour  since  that  epoch  is  out  of  my 
jurisdiction.  I  am  ignorant  of  the  reason  for  his  present  de- 
tention in  the  Luxembourg  prison,  but  I  beg  you,  Sir,  if  there 
be  reasons  which  prevent  his  liberation,  and  which  are  un- 
known to  me,  be  so  good  as  to  inform  me  of  them,  so  that  I 
may  communicate  them  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States. — I  have  the  honour  to  be.  Sir,  Your  very  humble  servant.. 

"  Gouv.  Morris."  " 

DEFORGUES  TO  MORRIS. 

"  Paris,  ist  Ventose,  and  year  of  the  Republic. 
[February  ig,  1794.] 

"  The  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  to  the  Minister  of  the  United 
States. 

"  In  your  letter  of  the  26th  of  last  month  you  reclaim  the 
liberty  of  Thomas  Payne,  as  an  American  Citizen.  Born  in 
England,  this  co-deputy  has  become  successively  an  American 
and  a  French  Citizen.  In  accepting  this  last  title,  and  in  occu- 
pying a  place  in  the  Legislative  Corps,  he  submitted  himself  to 
the  laws  of  the  Republic,  and  has  renounced  the  protection 
which  the  right  of  the  people  and  treaties  concluded  with  the 
United  States  could  have  assured  him. 

"  I  am  ignorant  of  the  motives  of  his  detention,  but  I  must 
presume  they  are  well  founded.  I  shall  nevertheless  submit  the 
demand  you  have  addressed  me  to  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety,  and  I  shall  lose  no  time  in  letting  you  know  its  decision. 

"  DEFORGUES." 

'  "  Etats  Unis,"  vol.  xl.,  Doc.  54.  Endorsed:  "Received  tlie  28th  of 
same  [Pluviose,  i.  e.,  Feb.  16th].  To'declare  reception  and  to  tell  him  that 
the  Minister  will  take  the  necessary  steps."  The  French  Minister's  reply- 
is  Doc.  61  of  the  same  volume. 


1794]  A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER.  121 


The  Opening  assertion  of  the  French  Minister's 
note  reveals  the  collusion.  Careful  examination  of 
the  American  Minister's  letter,  to  find  where  he 
"  reclaims  the  liberty  of  Thomas  Payne  as  an 
American  citizen,"  forces  me  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  Frenchman  only  discovered  such  reclamation 
there  by  the  assistance  of  Morris. 

The  American  Minister  distinctly  declares  Paine 
to  be  a  French  citizen,  and  disclaims  official  recog- 
nition of  his  conduct  as  ''pas  de  mon  ressort." 

It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  French  Minis- 
ter is  the  same  Deforgues  who  had  confided  to 
Morris  his  longing  to  succeed  Genet  in  America, 
and  to  whom  Morris  had  whispered  his  design 
against  Paine.  Morris  resided  at  Sainport,  twenty- 
seven  miles  away,  but  his  note  is  written  in  Paris. 
Four  days  elapse  before  the  reply.  Consultation 
is  further  proved  by  the  French  Minister's  speak- 
ing of  Paine  as  "occupying  a  place  in  the  Legisla- 
tive Corps."  No  uninspired  Frenchman  could  have 
so  described  the  Convention,  any  more  than  an 
American  would  have  described  the  Convention  of 
1787  as  "Congress."  Deforgues' phrase  is  calcu- 
lated for  Philadelphia,  where  it  might  be  supposed 
that  the  recently  adopted  Constitution  had  been 
followed  by  the  organization  of  a  legislature,  whose 
members  must  of  course  take  an  oath  of  allegiance, 
w.hich  the  Convention  had  not  required.'  Deforgues 
also  makes  bold  to  declare — as  far  away  as  Phila- 
delphia— that  Paine  is  a  French  citizen,  though  he 

'  Deforgues'  phrase  "laws  of  the  Republic"  is  also  a  deception.  The 
Constitution  had  been  totally  suspended  by  the  Convention  ;  no  government 
or  law  had  been  or  ever  was  established  under  or  by  it.  There  was  as  yet  no 
Republic,  and  only  revolutionary  or  martial  laws. 


122 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PA  IKE. 


was  excluded  from  the  Convention  and  imprisoned 
because  he  was  a  "  foreigner."  The  extreme  in- 
genuity of  the  letter  was  certainly  not  original  with 
this  Frenchman.  The  American  Minister,  in  re- 
sponse to  his  note  declaring  Paine  a  French  citizen, 
and  disclaiming  jurisdiction  over  him,  returns  to 
Sainport  with  his  official  opiate  for  Paine's  friends 
in  America  and  Paris — a  certificate  that  he  has 
"  reclaimed  the  liberty  of  Thomas  Paine  as  an 
American  citizen."  The  alleged  reclamation  sup- 
pressed, the  certificate  sent  to  Secretary  Jefferson 
and  to  Paine,  the  American  Minister  is  credited 
with  having  done  his  duty.  In  Washington's  Cab- 
inet, where  the  technicalities  of  citizenship  had 
become  of  paramount  importance,  especially  as 
regarded  France,  Deforgues'  claim  that  Paine  was 
not  an  American  must  be  accepted — Morris  con- 
senting— as  final. 

It  may  be  wondered  that  Morris  should  venture 
on  so  dangerous  a  game.  But  he  had  secured  him- 
self in  anything  he  might  choose  to  do.  So  soon 
as  he  discovered,  in  the  previous  summer,  that  he 
was  not  to  be  removed,  and  had  fresh  thunderbolts 
to  wield,  he  veiled  himself  from  the  inspection  of 
Jefferson.  This  he  did  in  a  letter  of  September 
22,  1793.  In  the  quasi-casual  way  characteristic 
of  him  when  he  is  particularly  deep,  Morris  then 
wrote  :  "  By  the  bye,  I  shall  cease  to  send yozi  copies 
of  my  various  applications  i7i  particular  cases,  for 
they  will  cost  you  more  in  postage  than  they  are 
worthy  I  put  in  italics  this  sentence,  as  one 
which  merits  memorable  record  in  the  annals  of 
diplomacy. 


A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER. 


123 


The  French  Foreign  Office  being  secret  as  the 
grave,  Jefferson  facile,  and  Washington  confiding, 
there  was  no  dano-er  that  Morris'  letter  to  De- 
forgues  would  ever  appear.  Although  the  letter 
of  Deforcrues, — his  certificate  that  Morris  had  re- 
claimed  Paine  as  an  American, — -was  a  little  longer 
than  the  pretended  reclamation,  postal  economy 
did  not  prevent  the  American  Minister  from  send- 
ing tJiat,  but  his  own  was  never  sent  to  his  govern- 
ment, and  to  this  day  is  unknown  to  its  archives. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  Morris'  letter  to  De- 
forgues  is  masterly  in  its  way.  He  asks  the 
Minister  to  give  him  such  reasons  for  Paine's  de- 
tention as  may  not  be  known  to  him  (Morris), 
there  being  no  such  reasons.  He  sets  at  rest  any 
timidity  the  Frenchman  might  have,  lest  Morris 
should  be  ensnaring  him  also,  by  begging — not 
demanding — such  knowledge  as  he  may  communi- 
cate to  his  government.  Philadelphia  is  at  a  safe 
distance  in  tirhe  and  space.  Deforgues  is  com- 
placent enough,  Morris  being  at  hand,  to  describe 
it  as  a  "demand,"  and  to  promise  speedy  action  on 
the  matter — which  was  then  straightway  buried,  for 
a  century's'slumber. 

Paine  was  no  doubt  right  in  his  subsequent  be- 
lief that  Morris  was  alarmed  at  his  intention  of 
returning  to  America.  Should  Paine  ever  reach 
Jefferson  and  his  adherents,  Gouverneur  Morris 
must  instantly  lose  a  position  which,  sustained 
by  Washington,  made  him  a  power  throughout 
Europe.  Moreover,  there  was  a  Nemesis  lurking 
near  him.  The  revolutionists,  aware  of  his  rela- 
tions with  their  enemies,  were  only  withheld  fro'm 


124 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


laying  hands  on  him  by  awe  of  Washington  and 
anxiety  about  the  alliance.  The  moment  of  his 
repudiation  by  his  government  would  have  been  a 
perilous  one.  It  so  proved,  indeed,  when  Monroe 
supplanted  him.  For  the  present,  however,  he  is 
powerful.  As  the  French  Executive  could  have 
no  interest  merely  to  keep  Paine,  for  six  months, 
without  suggestion  of  trial,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
any  reason,  save  the  wish  of  Morris,  why  he  was 
not  allowed  to  depart  with  the  Americans,  in 
accordance  with  their  petition. 

Thus  Thomas  Paine,  recognized  by  every  Ameri- 
can statesman  and  by  Congress  as  a  founder  of 
their  Republic,  found  himself  a  prisoner,  and  a 
man  without  a  country.  Outlawed  by  the  rulers  of 
his  native  land — though  the  people  bore  his  de- 
fender, Erskine,  from  the  court  on  their  shoulders 
— imprisoned  by  France  as  a  foreigner,  disowned 
by  America  as  a  foreigner,  and  prevented  by  its 
Minister  from  returning  to  the  country  whose  Presi- 
dent had  declared  his  services  to  it  pre-eminent  ! 

Never  dreaming  that  his  situation  was  the  work 
of  Morris,  Paine  (February  24th)  appealed  to  him  . 
for  help. 

"  I  received  your  letter  enclosing  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  the 
Minister  of  foreign  affairs.  You  must  not  leave  me  in  the 
situation  in  which  this  letter  places  me.  You  know  I  do  not 
deserve  it,  and  you  see  the  unpleasant  situation  in  which  I  am 
thrown.  I  have  made  an  essay  in  answer  to  the  Minister's 
letter,  which  I  wish  you  to  make  ground  of  a  reply  to  him. 
They  have  nothing  against  me — except  that  they  do  not  choose 
I  should  be  in  a  state  of  freedom  to  write  my  mind  freely  upon 
things  I  have  seen.  Though  you  and  I  are  not  on  terms  of 
the  best  harmony,  I  apply  to  you  as  the  Minister  of  America, 


1794] 


A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER. 


125 


and  you  may  add  to  that  service  whatever  you  think  my  in- 
tegrity deserves.  At  any  rate  I  expect  you  to  make  Congress 
acquainted  with  my  situation,  and  to  send  to  them  copies  of 
the  letters  that  have  passed  on  the  subject.  A  reply  to  the 
Minister's  letter  is  absolutely  necessary,  were  it  only  to  con- 
tinue the  reclamation.  Otherwise  your  silence  will  be  a  sort 
of  consent  to  his  observations." 

Supposing,  from  the  French  Minister's  opening 
assertion,  that  a  reclamation  had  really  been  made, 
Paine's  simplicity  led  him  into  a  trap.  He  sent 
his  argument  to  be  used  by  the  Minister  in  an 
answer  of  his  own,  so  that  Minister  was  able  to  do 
as  he  pleased  with  it,  the  result  being  that  it 
was  buried  among  his  private  papers,  to  be  partly 
brought  to  light  by  Jared  Sparks,  who  is  candid 
enough  to  remark  on  the  Minister's  indifference 
and  the  force  of  Paine's  argument.  Not  a  word  to 
Congress  was  ever  said  on  the  subject. 

Jefferson,  without  the  knowledge  or  expectation 
of  Morris,  had  resigned  the  State  Secretaryship 
at  the  close  of  1793.  Morris' letter  of  March  6th 
reached  the  hands  of  Edmund  Randolph,  Jeffer- 
son's successor,  late  in  June.  On  June  25th  Ran- 
dolph writes  Washington,  at  Mount  Vernon,  that 
he  has  received  a  letter  from  Morris,  of  March  6th, 
saying  "  that  he  has  demanded  Paine  as  an  Ameri- 
can citizen,  but  that  the  Minister  holds  him  to  be 
amenable  to  the  French  laws."  Randolph  was  a 
just  man  and  an  exact  lawyer  ;  it  is  certain  that  if 
he  had  received  a  copy  of  the  fictitious  "  reclama- 
tion "  the  imprisonment  would  have  been  curtailed. 
Under  the  false  information  before  him,  nothing 
could  be  done  but  await  the  statement  of  the  causes 
of  Paine's  detention,  which  Deforgues  would  "  lose 


126 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [^794 


no  time "  in  transmitting.  It  was  impossible  to 
deny,  without  further  knowledge,  the  rights  over 
Paine  apparently  claimed  by  the  French  gov- 
ernment. 

And  what  could  be  done  by  the  Americans  in 
Paris,  whom  Paine  alone  had  befriended  ?  Joel 
Barlow,  who  had  best  opportunities  of  knowing 
the  facts,  says  :  "  He  [Paine]  was  always  charitable 
to  the  poor  beyond  his  means,  a  sure  friend  and 
protector  to  all  Americans  in  distress  that  he  found 
in  foreign  countries  ;  and  he  had  frequent  occasions 
to  exert  his  influence  in  protecting  them  during 
the  Revolution  in  France."  They  were  grateful  and 
deeply  moved,  these  Americans,  but  thoroughly 
deceived  about  the  situation.  Told  that  they  must 
await  the  action  of  a  distant  government,  which 
itself  was  waiting  for  action  in  Paris,  alarmed  by 
the  American  Minister's  hints  of  danger  that  might 
ensue  on  any  misstep  or  agitation,  assured  that 
he  was  proceeding  with  the  case,  forbidden  to  com- 
municate with  Paine,  they  were  reduced  to  help- 
lessness. Meanwhile,  between  silent  America  and 
these  Americans,  all  so  cunningly  disabled,  stood 
the  remorseless  French  Committee,  ready  to  strike 
or  to  release  in  obedience  to  any  sign  from  the 
alienated  ally,  to  soothe  whom  no  sacrifice  would 
be  too  great.  Genet  had  been  demanded  for  the 
altar  of  sacred  Alliance,  but  (to  Morris'  regret)  re- 
fused by  the  American  government.  The  Revolu- 
tion would  have  preferred  Morris  as  a  victim,  but 
was  quite  ready  to  offer  Paine. 

Six  or  seven  months  elapsed  without  bringing 
from  President  or  Cabinet  a  word  of  sympathy 


1794] 


A  MINISTER  AND  HIS  PRISONER. 


127 


for  Paine.  But  they  brought  increasing  indications 
that  America  was  in  treaty  with  England,  and 
Washinofton  disaffected  towards  France.  Under 
these  circumstances  Robespierre  resolved  on  the 
accusation  and  trial  of  Paine.  It  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow  that  Paine  would  have  been  con- 
demned ;  but  there  were  some  who  did  not  mean 
that  he  should  escape,  among  whom  Robespierre 
may  or  may  not  have  been  included.  The  proba- 
bilities, to  my  mind,  are  against  that  theory. 
Robespierre  having  ceased  to  attend  the  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety  when  the  order  issued  for 
Paine's  death. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 

It  was  a  strange  world  into  which  misfortune 
had  introduced  Paine.  There  was  in  prison  a 
select  and  rather  philosophical  society,  mainly  per- 
sons of  refinement,  more  or  less  released  from 
conventional  habit  by  the  strange  conditions  under 
which  they  found  themselves.  There  were  gentle- 
men and  ladies,  no  attempt  being  made  to  separate 
them  until  some  scandal  was  reported.  The  Lux- 
embourg was  a  special  prison  for  the  French 
nobility  and  the  English,  who  had  a  good  oppor- 
tunity for  cultivating  democratic  ideas.  The  gaoler, 
Benoit,  was  good-natured,  and  cherished  his  unwil- 
ling guests  as  his  children,  according  to  a  witness. 
Paine  might  even  have  been  happy  there  but  for 
the  ever  recurring  tragedies — the  cries  of  those  led 
forth  to  death.  He  was  now  and  then  in  strange 
juxtapositions.  One  day  Deforgues  came  to  join 
him,  he  who  had  conspired  with  Morris.  Instead 
of  receiving  for  his  crime  diplomatic  security  in 
America  he  found  himself  beside  his  victim.  Per- 
haps if  Deforgues  and  Paine  had  known  each 
other's  language  a  confession  might  have  passed. 
There  were  horrors  on  horrors.  Paine's  old  friend, 
Herault  de  Sechelles,  was  imprisoned  for  having 

128 


1794] 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


129 


humanely  concealed  in  his  house  a  poor  officer 
who  was  hunted  by  the  police  ;  he  parted  from 
Paine  for  the  scaffold.  So  also  he  parted  from 
the  brilliant  Camille  Desmoulins,  and  the  fine 
dreamer,  Anacharsis  Clootz.  One  day  came  Dan- 
ton,  who,  taking  Paine's  hand,  said  :  "  That  which 
you  did  for  the  happiness  and  liberty  of  your  coun- 
try, I  tried  in  vain  to  do  for  mine.  I  have  been 
less  fortunate,  but  not  less  innocent.  They  will 
send  me  to  the  scaffold  ;  very  well,  my  friends, 
I  shall  go  gaily."  Even  so  did  Dan  ton  meet  his 
doom.^ 

All  of  the  English  prisoners  became  Paine's 
friends.  Among  these  was  General  O'Hara, — that 
same  general  who  had  fired  the  American  heart  at 
Yorktown  by  offering  the  surrendered  sword  of 
Cornwallis  to  Rochambeau  instead  of  Washington. 
O'Hara's  captured  suite  included  two  physicians — 
Bond  and  Graham- — ^who  attended  Paine  during  an 
illness,  as  he  gratefully  records.  What  money 
Paine  had  when  arrested  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  taken  from  him,  and  he  was  able  to  assist 
General  O'Hara  with  £200  to  return  to  his  country  ; 
though  by  this  and  similar  charities  he  was  left 
without  means  when  his  own  unexpected  deliver- 
ance came.^ 

The  first  part  of  "The  Age  of  Reason"  was 
sent  out  with  final  revision  at  the  close  of  January. 

'  "  Memoires  sur  les  prisons,"  t.  ii.,  p.  153. 

''■  Among  the  anecdotes  told  of  O'Hara  in  prison,  one  is  related  of  an 
argument  he  held  with  a  Frenchman,  on  the  relative  degrees  of  liberty  in 
England  and  France.  "In  England,"  he  said,  "we  are  perfectly  free  to 
write  and  print,  George  is  a  good  King  ;  but  you — why  you  are  not  even 
permitted  to  write,  Robespierre  is  a  tiger  !  " 
Vol.  II. — 9 


130 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l794 


In  the  second  edition  appeared  the  following; 
inscription  : 

"  To  MY  FELLOW  CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMER- 
ICA.— I  put  the  following  work  under  your  protection.  It  contains 
my  opinion  upon  Religion.  You  will  do  me  the  justice  to  re- 
member, that  I  have  always  strenuously  supported  the  Right  of 
every  man  to  his  opinion,  however  different  that  opinion  might 
be  to  mine.  He  who  denies  to  another  this  right,  makes  a 
slave  of  himself  to  his  present  opinion,  because  he  precludes 
himself  the  right  of  changing  it.  The  most  formidable  weapon 
against  errors  of  every  kind  is  Reason.  I  have  never  used  any 
other,  and  I  trust  I  never  shall. — Your  affectionate  friend  and 
fellow  citizen, 

"  Thomas  Paine." 

This  dedication  is  dated,  "  Luxembourg  (Paris), 
8th  Pluviose,  Second  year  of  the  French  Republic, 
one  and  indivisible.  January  27,  O.  S.  1794." 
Paine  now  addressed  himself  to  the  second  part  of 
"The  Age  of  Reason,"  concerning  which  the  fol- 
lowing anecdote  is  told  in  the  manuscript  memo- 
randa of  Thomas  Rickman  : 

"  Paine,  while  in  the  Luxembourg  prison  and  expecting  to 
die  hourly,  read  to  Mr.  Bond  (surgeon  of  Brighton,  from 
whom  this  anecdote  came)  parts  of  his  Age  of  Reason  j  and 
every  night,  when  Mr.  Bond  left  him,  to  be  separately  locked 
up,  and  expecting  not  to  see  Paine  alive  in  the  morning,  he 
[Paine]  always  expressed  his  firm  belief  in  the  principles  of 
that  book,  and  begged  Mr.  Bond  should  tell  the  world  such 
were  his  dying  sentiments.  Paine  further  said,  if  he  lived  he 
should  further  prosecute  the  work  and  print  it.  Bond  added, 
Paine  was  the  most  conscientious  man  he  ever  knew." 

In  after  years,  when  Paine  was  undergoing  per- 
secution for  "infidelity,"  he  reminded  the  zealots 
that  they  would  have  to  "  accuse  Providence  of 


17941 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


infidelity,"  for  having  "  protected  him  in  all  his 
dangers."  Incidentally  he  gives  reminiscences  of 
his  imprisonment. 

"  I  was  one  of  the  nine  members  that  composed  the  first 
Committee  of  Constitution.  Six  of  them  have  been  destroyed. 
Sieyes  and  myself  have  survived — he  by  bending  with  the 
times,  and  I  by  not  bending.  The  other  survivor  [Barrere] 
joined  Robespierre  ;  he  was  seized  and  imprisoned  in  his  turn, 
and  sentenced  to  transportation.  He  has  since  apologized  to 
me  for  having  signed  the  warrant,  by  saying  he  felt  himself  in 
danger  and  was  obliged  to  do  it.  H^rault  Sechelles,  an  ac- 
quaintance of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  a  good  patriot,  was  my  sup- 
Jfleant  as  member  of  the  Committee  of  Constitution.  .  .  .  He 
was  imprisoned  in  the  Luxembourg  with  me,  was  taken  to  the 
tribunal  and  guillotined,  and  I,  his  principal,  left.  There  were 
two  foreigners  in  the  Convention,  Anacharsis  Clootz  and  my- 
self. We  were  both  put  out  of  the  Convention  by  the  same 
vote,  arrested  by  the  same  order,  and  carried  to  prison  to- 
gether the  same  night.  He  was  taken  to  the  guillotine,  and  I 
was  again  left.  .  .  .  Joseph  Lebon,  one  of  the  vilest  characters 
that  ever  existed,  and  who  made  the  streets  of  Arras  run  with 
blood,  was  my  suppleant,  as  member  of  the  Convention  for  the 
Pas  de  Calais.  When  I  was  put  out  of  the  Convention  he  came 
and  took  my  place.  When  I  was  liberated  from  prison  and 
voted  again  into  the  Convention,  he  was  sent  to  the  same 
prison  and  took  my  place  there,  and  he  was  sent  to  the  guillo- 
tine instead  of  me.    He  supplied  my  place  all  the  way  through. 

"  One  hundred  and  sixty-eight  persons  were  taken  out  of  the 
Luxembourg  in  one  night,  and  a  hundred  and  sixty  of  them 
guillotined  next  day,  of  which  I  knew  I  was  to  be  one  ;  and 
the  manner  I  escaped  that  fate  is  curious,  and  has  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  accident.  The  room  in  which  I  lodged  was  on  the 
ground  floor,  and  one  of  a  long  range  of  rooms  under  a  gallery, 
and  the  door  of  it  opened  outward  and  flat  against  the  wall  ; 
so  that  when  it  was  open  the  inside  of  the  door  appeared  out- 
ward, and  the  contrary  when  it  was  shut.  I  had  three  com- 
rades, fellow  prisoners  with  me,  Joseph  Vanhuile  of  Bruges, 
since  president  of  the  municipality  of  that  town,  Michael  and 


132 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1794 


Robbins  Bastini  of  Louvain.  When  persons  by  scores  and  by 
hundreds  were  to  be  taken  out  of  the  prison  for  the  guillotine 
it  was  always  done  in  the  night,  and  those  who  performed  that 
office  had  a  private  mark  or  signal  by  which  they  knew  what 
rooms  to  go  to,  and  what  number  to  take.  We,  as  I  have  said, 
were  four,  and  the  door  of  our  room  was  marked,  unobserved 
by  us,  with  that  number  in  chalk  ;  but  it  happened,  if  happen- 
ing is  the  proper  word,  that  the  mark  was  put  on  when  the 
door  was  open  and  flat  against  the  wall,  and  thereby  came  on 
the  inside  when  we  shut  it  at  night ;  and  the  destroying  angel 
passed  by  it." 

Paine  did  not  hear  of  this  chalk  mark  until  after- 
wards.   In  his  letter  to  Washington  he  says: 

"  I  had  been  imprisoned  seven  months,  and  the  silence  of 
the  executive  part  of  the  government  of  America  (Mr.  Wash- 
ington) upon  the  case,  and  upon  every  thing  respecting  me,  was 
explanation  enough  to  Robespierre  that  he  might  proceed  to 
extremities.  A  violent  fever  which  had  nearly  terminated  my 
existence  was,  I  believe,  the  circumstance  that  preserved  it.  I 
was  not  in  a  condition  to  be  removed,  or  to  know  of  what  was 
passing,  or  of  what  had  passed,  for  more  than  a  month.  It 
makes  a  blank  in  my  remembrance  of  life.  The  first  thing  I 
was  informed  of  was  the  fall  of  Robespierre." 

The  probabilities  are  that  the  prison  physician 
Marhaski,  whom  Paine  mentions  with  gratitude, 
was  with  him  when  the  chalk  mark  was  made,  and 
that  there  was  some  connivance  in  the  matter.  In 
the  same  letter  he  says : 

"  From  about  the  middle  of  March  (1794)  to  the  fall  of 
Robespierre,  July  29,  (9th  of  Thermidor,)  the  state  of  things 
in  the  prisons  was  a  continued  scene  of  horror.  No  man  could 
count  upon  life  for  twenty-four  hours.  To  such  a  pitch  of 
rage  and  suspicion  were  Robespierre  and  his  committee  ar- 
rived, that  it  seemed  as  if  they  feared  to  leave  a  man  to  live. 
Scarcely  a  night  passed  in  which  ten,  twenty,  thirty,  forty, 


1794] 


SICK'  AND  IN  PRISON. 


fifty  or  more  were  not  taken  out  of  the  prison,  carried  before 
a  pretended  tribunal  in  the  morning,  and  guillotined  before 
night.  One  hundred  and  sixty-nine  were  taken  out  of  the 
Luxembourg  one  night  in  the  month  of  July,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  of  them  guillotined.  A  list  of  two  hundred 
more,  according  to  the  report  in  the  prison,  was  preparing  a 
few  days  before  Robespierre  fell.  In  this  last  list  I  have  good 
reason  to  believe  I  was  included." 

To  this  Paine  adds  the  memorandum  for  his 
accusation  found  in  Robespierre's  note-book.  Of 
course  it  was  natural,  especially  with  the  memoran- 
dum, to  accept  the  Robespierre  mythology  of  the 
time  without  criticism.  The  massacres  of  July 
were  not  due  to  Robespierre,  who  during  that  time 
was  battling  with  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
at  whose  hands  he  fell  on  the  29th.  At  the  close 
of  June  there  was  an  alarm  at  preparations  for  an 
insurrection  in  Luxembourg  prison,  which  caused  a 
union  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  and  the 
police,  resulting  in  indiscriminate  slaughter  of  pris- 
oners. But  Paine  was  discriminated.  Barrere, 
long  after,  apologized  to  him  for  having  signed 
"the  warrant,"  by  saying  he  felt  himself  in  danger 
and  was  obliged  to  do  it.  Paine  accepted  the 
apology,  and  when  Barrere  had  returned  to  France, 
after  banishment,  Paine  introduced  him  to  the  Eng- 
lish author,  Lewis  Goldsmith.^  As  Barrere  did  not 
sign  the  warrant  for  Paine's  imprisonment,  it  must 
have  been  a  warrant  for  his  death,  or  for  accusa- 
tion at  a  moment  when  it  was  equivalent  to  a  death 
sentence.  Whatever  danger  Barrere  had  to  fear, 
so  great  as  to  cause  him  to  sacrifice  Paine,  it  was 

^  "  Memoires  de  B.  Barrere, "t.  i.,  p.  So.  Lewis  Goldsmith  was  the  author 
of  "  Crimes  of  the  Caliinets." 


134 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794 


not  from  Robespierre ;  else  it  would  not  have  con- 
tinued to  keep  Paine  in  prison  three  months  after 
Robespierre's  death.  As  Robespierre's  memoran- 
dum was  for  a  "  decree  of  accusation "  against 
Paine,  separately,  which  might  not  have  gone 
against  him,  but  possibly  have  dragged  to  light  the 
conspiracy  against  him,  there  would  seem  to  be  no 
ground  for  connecting  that  "  demand  "  with  the 
warrant  signed  by  a  Committee  he  did  not  attend. 

Paine  had  good  cause  for  writing  as  he  did  in 
praise  of  "  Forgetfulness."  During  the  period  in 
which  he  was  unconscious  with  fever  the  horrors  of 
the  prison  reached  their  apogee.  On  June  19th 
the  kindly  gaoler,  Benoit,  was  removed  and  tried  ; 
he  was  acquitted  but  not  restored.  His  place  was 
given  to  a  cruel  fellow  named  Gayard,  who  insti- 
tuted a  reign  of  terror  in  the  prison. 

There  are  many  evidences  that  the  good  Benoit, 
so  warmly  remembered  by  Paine,  evaded  the  rigid 
police  regulations  as  to  communications  of  prison- 
ers with  their  friends  outside,  no  doubt  with  pre- 
caution against  those  of  a  political  character.  It  is 
pleasant  to  record  an  instance  of  this  which  was 
the  means  of  bringing  beautiful  rays  of  light  into 
Paine's  cell.  Shortly  before  his  arrest  an  English 
lady  had  called  on  him,  at  his  house  in  the  Fau- 
bourg St.  Denis,  to  ask  his  intervention  in  behalf 
of  an  Englishman  of  rank  who  had  been  arrested. 
Paine  had  now,  however,  fallen  from  power,  and 
could  not  render  the  requested  service.  This  lady 
was  the  last  visitor  who  preceded  the  officers  who 
arrested  him.  But  while  he  was  in  prison  there 
was  brought  to  him  a  communication,  in  a  lady's 


^794] 


SICK  AND  m  PRISON. 


handwriting,  signed  "  A  little  corner  of  the  World." 
So  far  as  can  be  gathered,  this  letter  was  of  a  poeti- 
cal character,  perhaps  tinged  with  romance.  It 
was  followed  by  others,  all  evidently  meant  to  be- 
guile the  weary  and  fearful  hours  of  a  prisoner 
whom  she  had  little  expectation  of  ever  meeting 
again.  Paine,  by  the  aid  of  Benoit,  managed  to 
answer  his  "  contemplative  correspondent,"  as  he 
called  her,  signing,  "  The  Castle  in  the  Air." 
These  letters  have  never  seen  the  light,  but  the 
sweetness  of  this  sympathy  did,  for  many  an  hour, 
bring  into  Paine's  oubliette  the  oblivion  of  grief 
described  in  the  letter  on  "  Forgetfulness,"  sent  to 
the  lady  after  his  liberation. 

"  Memory,  like  a  beauty  that  is  always  present  to  hear  her- 
self flattered,  is  flattered  by  every  one.  But  the  absent  and 
silent  goddess,  Forgetfulness,  has  no  votaries,  and  is  never 
thought  of  :  yet  we  owe  her  much.  She  is  the  goddess  of 
ease,  though  not  of  pleasure.  When  the  mind  is  like  a  room 
hung  with  black,  and  every  corner  of  it  crowded  with  the  most 
horrid  images  imagination  can  create,  this  kind,  speechless 
maid,  Forgetfulness,  is  following  us  night  and  day  with  her 
opium  wand,  and  gently  touching  first  one  and  then  another, 
benumbs  them  into  rest,  and  then  glides  away  with  the  silence 
of  a  departing  shadow." 

Paine  was  not  forgotten  by  his  old  friends  in 
France.  So  soon  as  the  excitement  attending 
Robespierre's  execution  had  calmed  a  little,  Lan- 
thenas  (August  7th)  sent  Merlin  de  Thionville  a 
copy  of  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  which  he  had  trans- 
lated, and  made  his  appeal. 

"  I  think  it  would  be  in  the  well-considered  interest  of  the 
Republic,  since  the  fall  of  the  tyrants  we  have  overthrown,  to 
re-examine  the  motives  of   Thomas  Paine's  imprisonment. 


136 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1794 


That  re-examination  is  suggested  by  too  many  and  sensible 
grounds  to  be  related  in  detail.  Every  friend  of  liberty  famil- 
iar with  the  history  of  our  Revolution,  and  feeling  the  neces- 
sity of  repelling  the  slanders  with  which  despots  are  loading  it 
in  the  eyes  of  nations,  misleading  them  against  us,  will  under- 
stand these  grounds.  Should  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
having  before  it  no  founded  charge  or  suspicion  against  Thomas 
Paine,  retain  any  scruples,  and  think  that  from  my  occasional 
conversation  with  that  foreigner,  whom  the  people's  suffrage 
called  to  the  national  representation,  and  some  acquaintance 
with  his  language,  I  might  perhaps  throw  light  upon  their  doubt, 
I  would  readily  communicate  to  them  all  that  I  know  about 
him.  I  request  Merlin  de  Thionville  to  submit  these  con- 
siderations to  the  Committee." 

Merlin  was  now  a  leading  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee. On  the  following  day  Paine  sent  (in 
French)  the  following  letters  : 

"Citizens,  Representatives,  and  Members  of  the  Com- 
mittee OF  Public  Safety  :  I  address  you  a  copy  of  a  letter 
which  I  have  to-day  written  to  the  Convention.  The  singular 
situation  in  which  I  find  myself  determines  me  to  address 
myself  to  the  whole  Convention,  of  which  you  are  a  part. 

"  Thomas  Paine. 

"  Maison  d'Arret  du  Luxembourg, 

Le    19   Thermidor,   Fan   2    de  la  R^publique,   une  et 
indivisible." 

"  Citizen  Representatives  :  If  I  should  not  express  my- 
self with  the  energy  I  used  formerly  to  do,  you  will  attribute  it 
to  the  very  dangerous  illness  I  have  suffered  in  the  prison  of 
the  Luxembourg.  For  several  days  I  was  insensible  of  my 
own  existence  ;  and  though  I  am  much  recovered,  it  is  with 
exceeding  great  difficulty  that  I  find  power  to  write  you  this 
letter. 

"  But  before  I  proceed  further,  I  request  the  Convention  to 
observe  :  that  this  is  the  first  line  that  has  come  from  me,  either 


1794] 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


to  the  Convention,  or  to  any  of  the  Committees,  since  my  im- 
prisonment,— which  is  approaching  to  Eight  months. — Ah,  my 
friends,  eight  months'  loss  of  Liberty  seems  almost  a  life-time 
to  a  man  who  has  been,  as  I  have  been,  the  unceasing  defender 
of  Liberty  for  twenty  years. 

"  I  have  now  to  inform  the  Convention  of  the  reason  of  my 
not  having  written  before.  It  is  a  year  ago  that  I  had  strong 
reason  to  believe  that  Robespierre  was  my  inveterate  enemy, 
as  he  was  the  enemy  of  every  man  of  virtue  and  humanity. 
The  address  that  was  sent  to  the  Convention  sonie  time  about 
last  August  from  Arras,  the  native  town  of  Robespierre,  I  have 
always  been  informed  was  the  work  of  that  hypocrite  and  the 
partizans  he  had  in  the  place.  The  intention  of  that  address 
was  to  prepare  the  way  for  destroying  me,  by  making  the  Peo- 
ple declare  (though  without  assigning  any  reason)  that  I  had 
lost  their  confidence  ;  the  Address,  however,  failed  of  success, 
as  it  was  immediately  opposed  by  a  counter-address  from  St. 
Omer  which  declared  the  direct  contrary.  But  the  strange 
power  that  Robespierre,  by  the  most  consummate  hypocrisy 
and  the  most  hardened  cruelties,  had  obtained  rendered  any 
attempt  on  my  part  to  obtain  justice  not  only  useless  but  even 
dangerous  ;  for  it  is  the  nature  of  Tyranny  always  to  strike  a 
deeper  blow  when  any  attempt  has  been  made  to  repel  a  former 
one.  This  being  my  situation  I  submitted  with  patience  to  the 
hardness  of  my  fate  and  waited  the  event  of  brighter  days.  I 
hope  they  are  now  arrived  to  the  nation  and  to  me. 

"Citizens,  when  I  left  the  United  States  in  the  year  1787,  I 
promised  to  all  my  friends  that  I  would  return  to  them  the 
next  year  ;  but  the  hope  of  seeing  a  Revolution  happily  estab- 
lished in  France,  that  might  serve  as  a  model  to  the  rest  of 
Europe,  and  the  earnest  and  disinterested  desire  of  rendering 
every  service  in  my  power  to  promote  it,  induced  me  to  defer 
my  return  to  that  country,  and  to  the  society  of  my  friends, 
for  more  than  seven  years.    This  long  sacrifice  of  private 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794 


tranquillity,  especially  after  having  gone  through  the  fatigues 
and  dangers  of  the  American  Revolution  which  continued 
almost  eight  years,  deserved  a  better  fate  than  the  long  im- 
prisonment I  have  silently  suffered.  But  it  is  not  the  nation 
but  a  faction  that  has  done  me  this  injustice,  and  it  is  to  the 
national  representation  that  I  appeal  against  that  injustice. 
Parties  and  Factions,  various  and  numerous  as  they  have  been, 
I  have  always  avoided.  My  heart  was  devoted  to  all  France, 
and  the  object  to  which  I  applied  myself  was  the  Constitution. 
The  Plan  which  I  proposed  to  the  Committee,  of  which  I  was  a 
member,  is  now  in  the  hands  of  Barrere,  and  it  will  speak  for  itself. 

"  It  is  perhaps  proper  that  I  inform  you  of  the  cause  as- 
signed in  the  order  for  my  imprisonment.  It  is  that  I  am  '  a 
Foreigner  '  ;  whereas,  the  Foreigner  thus  imprisoned  was  in- 
vited into  France  by  a  decree  of  the  late  national  Assembly, 
and  that  in  the  hour  of  her  greatest  danger,  when  invaded  by 
Austrians  and  Prussians.  He  was,  moreover,  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  an  ally  of  France,  and  not  a  subject 
of  any  country  in  Europe,  and  consequently  not  within  the  in- 
tentions of  any  of  the  decrees  concerning  Foreigners.  But  any 
excuse  can  be  made  to  serve  the  purpose  of  malignity  when  it 
is  in  power. 

"  I  will  not  intrude  on  your  time  by  offering  any  apology  for 
the  broken  and  imperfect  manner  in  which  I  have  expressed 
myself.  I  request  you  to  accept  it  with  the  sincerity  with 
which  it  comes  from  my  heart  ;  and  I  conclude  with  wishing 
Fraternity  and  prosperity  to  France,  and  union  and  happiness 
to  her  representatives. 

"  Citizens,  I  have  now  stated  to  you  my  situation,  and  I  can 
have  no  doubt  but  your  justice  will  restore  me  to  the  Liberty 
of  which  I  have  been  deprived. 

"  Thomas  Paine. 
"Luxembourg,  Thermidor  19th,  2d  year  of  the  French  Re- 
public, one  and  indivisible." 


1794] 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


No  doubt  this  touching  letter  would  have  been 
effectual  had  it  reached  the  Convention.  But  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  took  care  that  no 
whisper  even  of  its  existence  should  be  heard. 
Paine's  participation  in  their  fostered  dogma,  that 
Robespierre  le  veut  explained  all  crimes,  probably 
cost  him  three  more  months  in  prison.  The  lamb 
had  confided  its  appeal  to  the  wolf.  Barrere,  Bil- 
laud-Varennes,  and  Collot  d'Herbois,  by  skilful 
use  of  the  dead  scapegoat,  maintained  their  places 
on  the  Committee  until  September  1st,  and  after 
that  influenced  its  counsels.  At  the  same  time 
Morris,  as  we  have  seen,  was  keeping  Monroe  out 
of  his  place.  There  might  have  been  a  serious 
reckoning  for  these  men  had  Paine  been  set  free, 
or  his  case  inquired  into  by  the  Convention.  And 
Thuriot  was  now  on  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  ;  he  was  eager  to  lay  his  own  crimes  on 
Robespierre,  and  to  conceal  those  of  the  Com- 
mittee. Paine's  old  friend,  Achille  Audibert,  un- 
suspicious as  himself  of  the  real  facts,  sent  an 
appeal  (August  20th)  to  "  Citizen  Thuriot,  member 
of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety." 

"  Representative  : — A  friend  of  mankind  is  groaning  in 
chains, — Thomas  Paine,  who  was  not  so  politic  as  to  remain 
silent  in  regard  to  a  man  unlike  himself,  but  dared  to  say  that 
Robespierre  was  a  monster  to  be  erased  from  the  list  of  men. 
From  that  moment  he  became  a  criminal  ;  the  despot  marked 
him  as  his  victim,  put  him  into  prison,  and  doubtless  prepared 
the  way  to  the  scaffold  for  him,  as  for  others  who  knew  him 
and  were  courageous  enough  to  speak  out.' 

'  It  must  be  remembered  that  at  this  time  it  seemed  the  strongest  recom- 
mendation of  any  one  to  public  favor  to  describe  him  as  a  victim  of  Robes- 
pierre ;  and  Paine's  friends  could  conceive  no  other  cause  for  the  detention 
of  a  man  they  knew  to  be  innocent. 


140 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i79+ 


"  Thomas  Paine  is  an  acknowledged  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  the  secretary  of  the  Congress  for  the  depart- 
ment of  foreign  affairs  during  the  Revolution.  He  has  made 
himself  known  in  Europe  by  his  writings,  and  especially  by  his 
'  Rights  of  Man.'  The  electoral  assembly  of  the  department 
of  Pas-de-Calais  elected  him  one  of  its  representatives  to  the 
Convention,  and  commissioned  me  to  go  to  London,  inform 
him  of  his  election,  and  bring  him  to  France.  I  hardly  escaped 
being  a  victim  to  the  English  Government  with  which  he  was 
at  open  war  ;  I  performed  my  mission  ;  and  ever  since  friend- 
ship has  attached  me  to  Paine.  This  is  my  apology  for  soliciting 
you  for  his  liberation. 

"  I  can  assure  you.  Representative,  that  America  was  by  no 
means  satisfied  with  the  imprisonment  of  a  strong  column  of 
its  Revolution.  Please  to  take  my  prayer  into  consideration. 
But  for  Robespierre's  villainy  this  friend  of  man  would  now  be 
free.  Do  not  permit  liberty  longer  to  see  in  prison  a  victim  of 
the  wretch  who  lives  no  more  but  by  his  crimes  ;  and  you  will 
add  to  the  esteem  and  veneration  I  feel  for  a  man  who  did  so 
much  to  save  the  country  amidst  the  most  tremendous  crisis  of 
our  Revolution. 

"  Greeting,  respect,  and  brotherhood, 

"  AcHiLLE  AuDiBERT,  of  Calais. 

"No.  216  Rue  de  Bellechase,  Fauborg  St.  Germaine." 

Audibert's  letter,  of  course,  sank  under  the  bur- 
den of  its  Robespierre  myth  to  a  century's  sleep 
beside  Paine's,  in  the  Committee's  closet. 

Meanwhile,  the  regulation  against  any  communi- 
cation of  prisoners  with  the  outside  world  remaining 
in  force,  it  was  some  time  before  Paine  could  know 
that  his  letter  had  been  suppressed  on  its  way  to 
the  Convention.  He  was  thus  late  in  discovering 
his  actual  enemies. 

An  interesting  page  in  the  annals  of  diplomacy 
remains  to  be  written  on  the  closing  weeks  of 
Morris  in  France.     On  August  14th  he  writes 


1794] 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


141 


to  Robert  Morris  :  "I  am  preparing  for  my  de- 
parture, but  as  yet  can  take  no  step,  as  there  is  a 
kind  of  interregnum  in  the  government  and  Mr. 
Monroe  is  not  yet  received,  at  which  he  grows 
somewhat  impatient."  There  was  no  such  inter- 
regnum, and  no  such  explanation  was  given  to 
Monroe,  who  writes  : 

"  I  presented  my  credentials  to  the  commissary  of  foreign 
affairs  soon  after  my  arrival  [August  2d]  ;  but  more  than  a 
week  had  elapsed,  and  I  had  obtained  no  answer,  when  or 
whether  I  should  be  received.  A  delay  beyond  a  few  days 
surprised  me,  because  I  could  discern  no  adequate  or  rational 
motive  for  it." ' 

It  is  plain  that  the  statement  of  Paine,  who  was 
certainly  in  communication  with  the  Committees  a 
year  later,  is  true,  that  Morris  was  in  danger  on 
account  of  the  interception  of  compromising  letters 
written  by  him.  He  needed  time  to  dispose  of 
his  house  and  horses,  and  ship  his  wines,  and  felt 
it  important  to  retain  his  protecting  credentials. 
At  any  moment  his  friends  might  be  expelled  from 
the  Committee,  and  their  papers  be  examined. 
While  the  arrangements  for  Monroe's  reception 
rested  with  Morris  and  this  unaltered  Committee, 
there  was  little  prospect  of  Monroe's  being  installed 
at  all.  The  new  Minister  was  therefore  compelled, 
as  other  Americans  had  been,  to  appeal  directly 
to  the  Convention.  That  assembly  responded  at 
once,  and  he  was  received  (August  28th)  with 
highest  honors.  Morris  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  arrangement.    The  historian  Frederic  Masson, 

'  ' '  View  of  the  Conduct  of  the  Executive  in  the  Foreign  Affairs  of  the 
United  States,"  by  James  Monroe,  p.  7. 


142 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


alluding  to  the  "  unprecedented "  irregularity  of 
Morris  in  not  delivering  or  receiving  letters  of 
recall,  adds  that  Monroe  found  it  important  to 
state  that  he  had  acted  without  consultation  with 
his  predecessor.'  This  was  necessary  for  a  cordial 
reception  by  the  Convention,  but  it  invoked  the 
cordial  hatred  of  Morris,  who  marked  him  for  his 
peculiar  guillotine  set  up  in  Philadelphia. 

So  completely  had  America  and  Congress  been 
left  in  the  dark  about  Paine  that  Monroe  was  sur- 
prised to  find  him  a  prisoner.  When  at  length  the 
new  Minister  was  in  a  position  to  consult  the 
French  Minister  about  Paine,  he  found  the  knots 
so  tightly  tied  around  this  particular  victim — almost 
the  only  one  left  in  the  Luxembourg  of  those  impris- 
oned during  the  Terror — that  it  was  difficult  to 
untie  them.  The  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  was 
now  M.  Bouchot,  a  weak  creature  who,  as  Morris 
said,  would  not  wipe  his  nose  without  permission 
of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety.  When  Monroe 
opened  Paine's  case  he  was  asked  whether  he  had 
brought  instructions.  Of  course  he  had  none,  for 
the  administration  had  no  suspicion  that  Morris 
had  not,  as  he  said,  attended  to  the  case. 

When  Paine  recovered  from  his  fever  he  heard 
that  Monroe  had  superseded  Morris. 

"  As  soon  as  I  was  able  to  write  a  note  legible  enough  to  be 
read,  I  found  a  way  to  convey  one  to  him  [Monroe]  by  means 
of  the  man  who  lighted  the  lamps  in  the  prison,  and  whose 
unabated  friendship  to  me,  from  whom  he  never  received  any 
service,  and  with  difficulty  accepted  any  recompense,  puts  the 
character  of  Mr.  Washington  to  shame.    In  a  few  days  I  re- 

'  "  Le  Departement  des  Aflaires  £trangeres,"  etc.,  p.  345. 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


ceived  a  message  from  Mr.  Monroe,  conveyed  in  a  note  from 
an  intermediate  person,  with  assurance  of  his  friendship,  and 
expressing  a  desire  that  I  should  rest  the  case  in  his  hands. 
After  a  fortnight  or  more  had  passed,  and  hearing  nothing 
farther,  I  wrote  to  a  friend  [Whiteside],  a  citizen  of  Phila- 
delphia, requesting  him  to  inform  me  what  was  the  true  situa- 
tion of  things  with  respect  to  me.  I  was  sure  that  something 
was  the  matter  ;  I  began  to  have  hard  thoughts  of  Mr.  Wash- 
ington, but  I  was  unwilling  to  encourage  them.  In  about  ten 
days  I  received  an  answer  to  my  letter,  in  which  the  writer 
says  :  '  Mr.  Monroe  told  me  he  had  no  order  (meaning  from  the 
president,  Mr.  Washington)  respecting  you,  but  that  he  (Mr. 
Monroe)  will  do  everything  in  his  power  to  liberate  you,  but, 
from  what  I  learn  from  the  Americans  lately  arrived  in  Paris, 
you  are  not  considered,  either  by  the  American  government  or 
by  individuals,  as  an  American  citizen.'  " 

As  the  American  government  did  regard  Paine 
as  an  American  citizen,  and  approved  IVIonroe's 
demanding  him  as  such,  there  is  no  difficulty  in 
recognizing  the  source  from  which  these  state- 
ments were  diffused  among  Paine's  newly  arriving 
countrymen.    Morris  was  still  in  Paris. 

On  the  receipt  of  Whiteside's  note,  Paine  wrote 
a  Memorial  to  Monroe,  of  which  important  parts — 
amounting  to  eight  printed  pages — are  omitted 
from  American  and  English  editions  of  his  works. 
In  quoting  this  Memorial,  I  select  mainly  the 
omitted  portions.^  Paine  says  that  before  leaving 
London  for  the  Convention,  he  consulted  Minister 
Pinckney,  who  agreed  with  him  that  "  it  was  for 
the  interest  of  America  that  the  system  of  Euro- 
pean governments  should  be  changed  and  placed 

'  The  whole  is  published  in  French  :  "  Memoire  de  Thomas  Payne,  auto- 
graphe  et  signe  de  sa  main  :  addresse  a  M.  Monroe,  ministre  des  Etats-unis 
en  France,  pour  reclamer  sa  mise  en  liberte  comme  Citoyen  Americain,  10 
Septembre,  1794.  Villeneuve." 


144 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


on  the  same  principle  with  her  own  "  ;  and  adds  : 
"  I  have  wished  to  see  America  the  mother  church 
of  government,  and  I  have  done  my  utmost  to 
exalt  her  character  and  her  condition."  He  points 
out  that  he  had  not  accepted  any  title  or  office 
under  a  foreign  government,  within  the  meaning 
of  the  United  States  Constitution,  because  there 
was  no  government  in  France,  the  Convention 
being  assembled  to  frame  one  ;  that  he  was  a 
citizen  of  France  only  in  the  honorary  sense  in 
which  others  in  Europe  and  America  were  declared 
such  ;  that  no  oath  of  allegiance  was  required  or 
given.  The  following  paragraphs  are  from  various 
parts  of  the  Memorial. 

"  They  who  propagate  the  report  of  my  not  being  considered 
as  a  citizen  of  America  by  government,  do  it  to  the  prolonga- 
tion of  my  imprisonment,  and  without  authority  ;  for  Congress, 
as  a  government,  has  neither  decided  upon  it,  nor  yet  taken  the 
matter  into  consideration  ;  and  I  request  you  to  caution  such 
persons  against  spreading  such  reports.  . 

"  I  know  not  what  opinions  have  been  circulated  in  America. 
It  may  have  been  supposed  there,  that  I  had  voluntarily  and 
intentionally  abandoned  America,  and  that  my  citizenship  had 
ceased  by  my  own  choice.  I  can  easily  conceive  that  there 
are  those  in  that  Country  who  would  take  such  a  proceeding  on 
my  part  somewhat  in  disgust.  The  idea  of  forsaking  old  friend- 
ships for  new  acquaintances  is  not  agreeable.  I  am  a  little 
warranted  in  making  this  supposition  by  a  letter  I  received 
some  time  ago  from  the  wife  of  one  of  the  Georgia  delegates, 
in  which  she  says,  'your  friends  on  this  side  the  water  cannot 
be  reconciled  to  the  idea  of  your  abandoning  America.'  I 
have  never  abandoned  America  in  thought,  word,  or  deed,  and 
I  feel  it  incumbent  upon  me  to  give  this  assurance  to  the 
friends  I  have  in  that  country,  and  with  whom  I  have  always 
intended,  and  am  determined,  if  the  possibility  exists,  to  close 
the  scene  of  my  life.  It  is  there  that  I  have  made  myself  a 
home.    It  is  there  that  I  have  given  the  services  of  my  best 


7794]  SlCf^  IN  PRISON.  I4S 

days.  America  never  saw  me  flinch  from  her  cause  in  the  most 
gloomy  and  perilous  of  her  situations  :  and  I  know  there  are 
those  in  that  Country  who  will  not  flinch  from  me.  If  I  have 
Enemies  (and  every  man  has  some)  I  leave  them  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  their  ingratitude.    .    .  , 

"  It  is  somewhat  extraordinary,  that  the  Idea  of  my  not  being 
a  Citizen  of  America  should  have  arisen  only  at  the  time  that 
I  am  imprisoned  in  France  because,  or  on  the  pretence  that,  I 
am  a  foreigner.  The  case  involves  a  strange  contradiction  of 
Ideas.  None  of  the  Americans  who  came  to  France  whilst  I 
was  in  liberty,  had  conceived  any  such  idea  or  circulated  any 
such  opinion  ;  and  why  it  should  arise  now  is  a  matter  yet  to 
be  explained.  However  discordant  the  late  American  Minister, 
Gouverneur  Morris,  and  the  late  French  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  were,  it  suited  the  purpose  of  both  that  I  should  be  con- 
tinued in  arrestation.  The  former  wished  to  prevent  my  return 
to  America,  that  I  should  not  expose  his  misconduct ;  and  the 
latter,  lest  I  should  publish  to  the  world  the  history  of  its 
wickedness.  Whilst  that  Minister  and  that  Committee  con- 
tinued, I  had  no  expectation  of  liberty.  I  speak  here  of  the 
Committee  of  which  Robespierre  was  a  member.    .    .  . 

"  I  here  close  my  Memorial  and  proceed  to  offer  to  you  a 
proposal,  that  appears  to  me  suited  to  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  case  ;  which  is,  that  you  reclaim  me  conditionally,  until  the 
opinion  of  Congress  can  be  obtained  upon  the  subject  of  my 
Citizenship  of  America,  and  that  I  remain  in  liberty  under  your 
protection  during  that  time.  I  found  this  proposal  upon  the 
following  grounds  : 

"  First,  you  say  you  have  no  orders  respecting  me  ;  conse- 
quently you  have  no  orders  not  to  reclaim  me  ;  and  in  this  case 
you  are  left  discretionary  judge  whether  to  reclaim  or  not.  My 
proposal  therefore  unites  a  consideration  of  your  situation  with 
my  own. 

"  Secondly,  I  am  put  in  arrestation  because  I  am  a  for- 
eigner. It  is  therefore  necessary  to  determine  to  what  Country 
I  belong.  The  right  of  determining  this  question  cannot 
appertain  exclusively  to  the  committee  of  public  safety  or 
general  surety  ;  because  I  appear  to  the  Minister  of  the  United 
States,  and  shev^  that  my  citizenship  of  that  Country  is  good 
and  valid,  referring  at  the  same  time,  through  the  agency  of  the 

Vol.  II.— 10 


146  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794 

Minister,  my  claim  of  Right  to  the  opinion  of  Congress, — it 
being  a  matter  between  two  governments. 

"  Thirdly,  France  does  not  claim  me  for  a  citizen  ;  neither 
do  I  set  up  any  claim  of  citizenship  in  France.  The  question 
is  simply,  whether  I  am  or  am  not  a  citizen  of  America.  I  am 
imprisoned  here  on  the  decree  for  imprisoning  Foreigners,  be- 
cause, say  they,  I  was  born  in  England.  I  say  in  answer,  that, 
though  born  in  England,  I  am  not  a  subject  of  the  English 
Government  any  more  than  any  other  American  is  who  was 
born,  as  they  all  were,  under  the  same  government,  or  that  the 
citizens  of  France  are  subjects  of  the  French  monarchy,  under 
which  they  were  born.  I  have  twice  taken  the  oath  of  abjura- 
tion to  the  British  king  and  government,  and  of  Allegiance  to 
America.  Once  as  a  citizen  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  in 
1776  ;  and  again  before  Congress,  administered  to  me  by  the 
President,  Mr.  Hancock,  when  I  was  appointed  Secretary  in 
the  office  of  foreign  affairs  in  1777. 

"  Painful  as  the  want  of  liberty  may  be,  it  is  a  consolation  to 
me  to  believe  that  my  imprisonment  proves  to  the  world  that  I 
had  no  share  in  the  murderous  system  that  then  reigned.  That 
I  was  an  enemy  to  it,  both  morally  and  politically,  is  known  to 
all  who  had  any  knowledge  of  me  ;  and  could  I  have  written 
French  as  well  as  I  can  English,  I  would  publicly  have  exposed 
its  wickedness,  and  shown  the  ruin  with  which  it  was  pregnant. 
They  who  have  esteemed  me  on  former  occasions,  whether  in 
America  or  England,  will,  I  know,  feel  no  cause  to  abate  that 
esteem  when  they  reflect,  that  imprisonment  with  preservation 
of  character,  is  preferable  to  liberty  with  disgrace." 

In  a  postscript  Paine  adds  that  "  as  Gouverneur 
Morris  could  not  inform  Congress  of  the  cause  of 
my  arrestation,  as  he  knew  it  not  himself,  it  is  to  be 
supposed  that  Congress  was  not  enough  acquainted 
with  the  case  to  give  any  directions  respecting  me 
when  you  left,"  Which  to  the  reader  of  the  pre- 
ceding pages  will  appear  sufficiently  naive. 

To  this  Monroe  responded  (September  i8th) 
with  a  letter  of  warm  sympathy,  worthy  of  the 


1794]  ■S'^C*^  ^^'^        PRISON.  147 

hls^h-minded  gfentleman  that  he  was.  After  as- 
cribinir  the  notion  that  Paine  was  not  an  American 
to  mental  confusion,  and  affirming  his  determina- 
tion to  maintain  his  rights  as  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  Monroe  says  : 

"  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  tell  you  how  much  all  your 
countrymen,  I  speak  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  are  inter- 
ested in  your  welfare.  They  have  not  forgotten  the  history  of 
their  own  revolution,  and  the  difficult  scenes  through  which 
they  passed  ;  nor  do  they  review  its  several  stages  without 
reviving  in  their  bosoms  a  due  sensibility  of  the  merits  of  those 
who  served  them  in  that  great  and  arduous  conflict.  The  crime 
of  ingratitude  has  not  yet  stained,  and  I  trust  never  will  stain, 
our  national  character.  You  are  considered  by  them,  as  not 
only  having  rendered  important  services  in  our  own  revolution, 
but  as  being  on  a  more  extensive  scale,  the  friend  of  human 
rights,  and  a  distinguished  and  able  advocate  in  favor  of  public 
liberty.  To  the  welfare  of  Thomas  Paine  the  Americans  are 
not  and  cannot  be  indifferent.  Of  the  sense  which  the  Presi- 
dent has  always  entertained  of  your  merits,  'and  of  his  friendly 
disposition  towards  you,  you  are  too  well  assured  to  require 
any  declaration  of  it  from  me.  That  I  forward  his  wishes  in 
seeking  your  safety  is  what  I  well  know  ;  and  this  will  form  an 
additional  obligation  on  me  to  perform  what  I  should  otherwise 
consider  as  a  duty. 

"  You  are,  in  my  opinion,  menaced  by  no  kind  of  danger. 
To  liberate  you,  will  be  an  object  of  my  endeavors,  and  as  soon 
as  possible.  But  you  must,  until  that  event  shall  be  accom- 
plished, face  your  situation  with  patience  and  fortitude  ;  you 
will  likewise  have  the  justice  to  recollect,  that  I  am  placed  here 
upon  a  difficult  theatre,  many  important  objects  to  attend  to, 
and  with  few  to  consult.  It  becomes  me  in  pursuit  of  those, 
to  regulate  my  conduct  in  respect  to  each,  as  to  the  manner 
and  the  time,  as  will,  in  my  judgment,  be  best  calculated  to 
accomplish  the  whole. 

"  With  great  esteem  and  respect  consider  me  personally  your 
friend, 

"  James  Monroe." 


148 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Monroe  was  indeed  "placed  upon  a  difficult 
theatre."  Morris  was  showing  a  fresh  letter  from 
the  President  expressing  unabated  confidence  in 
him,  apologizing  for  his  recall ;  he  still  had  friends 
in  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  to  which  Mon- 
roe had  appealed  in  vain.  The  continued  dread 
the  conspirators  had  of  Paine's  liberation  appears 
in  the  fact  that  Monroe's  letter,  written  September 
1 8th,  did  not  reach  Paine  until  October  i8th,  when 
Morris  had  reached  the  boundary  line  of  Switzerland, 
which  he  entered  on  the  19th.  He  had  left  Paris 
(Sainport)  October  14th,  when  Barrere,  Billaud- 
Varennes,  and  Collot  d'Herbois,  no  longer  on  the 
Committee,  were  under  accusation,  and  their  papers 
under  investigation, — a  search  that  resulted  in  their 
exile.  Morris  got  across  the  line  on  an  irregular 
passport. 

While  Monroe's  reassuring  letter  to  Paine  was 
taking  a  month  to  penetrate  his  prison  walls, 
he  vainly  grappled  with  the  subtle  obstacles.  All 
manner  of  delays  impeded  the  correspondence,  the 
principal  one  being  that  he  could  present  no  in- 
structions from  the  President  concerning  Paine. 
Of  course  he  was  fighting  in  the  dark,  having  no 
suspicion  that  the  imprisonment  was  due  to  his 
predecessor.  At  length,  however,  he  received  from 
Secretary  Randolph  a  letter  (dated  July  30th), 
from  which,  though  Paine  was  not  among  its 
specifications,  he  could  select  a  sentence  as  basis  of 
action  :  "  We  have  heard  with  regret  that  several 
of  our  citizens  have  been  thrown  into  prison  in 
France,  from  a  suspicion  of  criminal  attempts 
against  the  government.    If  they  are  guilty  we  are 


1794] 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


149 


extremely  sorry  for  it ;  if  innocent  we  must  protect 
them."  What  Paine  had  said  in  his  Memorial  of 
collusion  between  Morris  and  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety  probably  determined  Monroe  to  ap- 
ply no  more  in  that  quarter  ;  so  he  wrote  (Novem- 
ber 2d)  to  the  Committee  of  General  Surety.  After 
stating  the  general  principles  and  limitations  of 
ministerial  protection  to  an  imprisoned  countryman, 
he  adds : 

"  The  citizens  of  the  United  States  cannot  look  back  upon 
the  time  of  their  own  revolution  without  recollecting  among 
the  names  of  their  most  distinguished  .patriots  that  of  Thomas 
Paine ;  the  services  he  rendered  to  his  country  in  its  struggle 
for  freedom  have  implanted  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  a 
sense  of  gratitude  never  to  be  effaced  as  long  as  they  shall 
deserve  the  title  of  a  just  and  generous  people. 

"  The  above-named  citizen  is  at  this  moment  languishing  in 
prison,  affected  with  a  disease  growing  more  intense  from  his 
confinement.  I  beg,  therefore,  to  call  your  attention  to  his 
condition  and  to  request  you  to  hasten  the  moment  when  the 
law  shall  decide  his  fate,  in  case  of  any  accusation  against  him, 
and  if  none,  to  restore  him  to  liberty. 

"Greeting  and  fraternity  "Monroe." 

At  this  the  first  positive  assertion  of  Paine's 
American  citizenship  the  prison  door  flew  open. 
He  had  been  kept  there  solely  "  pour  les  interets 
de  I'Amerique,"  as  embodied  in  Morris,  and  two 
days  after  Monroe  undertook,  without  instructions, 
to  affirm  the  real  interests  of  America  in  Paine  he 
was  liberated. 

"Brumaire,  13th.  Third  year  of  the  French  Republic. — The 
Committee  of  General  Surety  orders  that  the  Citizen  Thomas 
Paine  be  set  at  liberty,  and  the  seals  taken  from  his  papers,  on 
sight  of  these  presents.  • 


150 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794 


"  Members  of  the  Committee  (signed)  :  Clauzel,  Lesage, 
Senault,  Bentabole,  Reverchon,  Goupilleau  de  Fontenai, 
Rewbell. 

"  Delivered  to  Clauzel,  as  Commissioner." 

There  are  several  interesting  points  about  this 
little  decree.  It  is  signed  by  Bentabole,  who  had 
moved  Paine's  expulsion  from  the  Convention.  It 
orders  that  the  seals  be  removed  from  Paine's 
papers,  whereas  none  had  been  placed  on  them, 
the  officers  reporting  them  innocent.  This  same 
authority,  which  had  ordered  Paine's  arrest,  now,  in 
ordering  his  liberation,  shows  that  the  imprison- 
ment had  never  been  a  subject  of  French  inquiry. 
It  had  ordered  the  seals  but  did  not  know  whether 
they  were  on  the  papers  or  not.  It  was  no  concern 
of  France,  but  only  of  the  American  Minister.  It 
is  thus  further  evident  that  when  Monroe  invited  a 
trial  of  Paine  there  was  not  the  least  trace  of  any 
charge  against  him.  And  there  was  precisely  the 
same  absence  of  any  accusation  against  Paine  in  the 
new  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  to  which  Monroe's 
letter  was  communicated  the  same  day. 

Writing  to  Secretary  Randolph  (November  7th) 
Monroe  says  : 

"  He  was  actually  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the 
United  States  only  ;  for  the  Revolution  which  parted  us  from 
Great  Britain  broke  the  allegiance  which  was  before  due  to  the 
Crown,  of  all  who  took  our  side.  He  was,  of  course,  not  a 
British  subject  ;  nor  was  he  strictly  a  citizen  of  France,  for  he 
came  by  invitation  for  the  temporary  purpose  of  assisting  in  the 
formation  of  their  government  only,  and  meant  to  \vithdraw  to 
America  when  that  should  be  completed.  And  what  confirms 
this  is  the  act  of  the  Convention  itself  arresting  him,  by  which 
he  is  declared  a  foreigner.    Mr.  Paine  pressed  my  interference. 


1794] 


SICK  AND  IN  PRISON. 


I  told  him  I  had  hoped  getting  him  enlarged  without  it  ;  but,  if 
I  did  interfere,  it  could  only  be  by  requesting  that  he  be  tried, 
in  case  there  was  any  charge  against  him,  and  liberated  in  case 
there  was  not.  This  was  admitted.  His  correspondence  with 
me  is  lengthy  and  interesting,  and  I  may  probably  be  able  here- 
after to  send  you  a  copy  of  it.  After  some  time  had  elapsed, 
without  producing  any  change  in  his  favor,  I  finally  resolved  to 
address  the  Committee  of  General  Surety  in  his  behalf,  resting 
my  application  on  the  above  principle.  My  letter  was  delivered 
by  my  Secretary  in  the  Committee  to  the  president,  who  as- 
sured him  he  would  communicate  its  contents  immediately  to 
the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  and  give  me  an  answer  as  soon 
as  possible.  The  conference  took  place  accordingly  between 
the  two  Committees,  and,  as  I  presume,  on  that  night,  or  on  the 
succeeding  day  ;  for  on  the  morning  of  the  day  after,  which 
was  yesterday,  I  was  presented  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  General  Surety  with  an  order  for  his  enlargement.  I 
forwarded  it  immediately  to  the  Luxembourg,  and  had  it 
carried  into  effect  ;  and  have  the  pleasure  now  to  add  that  he 
is  not  only  released  to  the  enjoyment  of  liberty,  but  is  in  good 
spirits." 

In  reply,  the  Secretary  of  State  (Randolph)  in 
a  letter  to  Monroe  of  March  8,  1795,  says  :  "  Your 
observations  on  our  commercial  relations  to  France, 
and  your  conduct  as  to  Mr.  Gardoqui's  letter, 
prove  your  judgment  and  assiduity.  Nor  are  your 
measures  as  to  Mr.  Paine,  and  the  lady  of  our 
friend  [Lafayette]  less  approved." 

Thus,  after  an  imprisonment  of  ten  months  and 
nine  days,  Thomas  Paine  was  liberated  from  the 
prison  into  which  he  had  been  cast  by  a  Minister 
of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


A  E.ESTORATION. 

As  in  1792  Paine  had  left  England  with  the 
authorities  at  his  heels,  so  in  1794  escaped  Morris 
from  France.  The  ex-Minister  went  off  to  play 
courtier  to  George  III.  and  write  for  Louis 
XVIII.  the  despotic  proclamation  with  which  mon- 
archy was  to  be  restored  in  France"^ ;  Paine  sat  in 
the  house  of  a  real  American  Minister,  writing 
proclamations  of  republicanism  to  invade  the  em- 
pires.   So  passed  each  to  his  own  place. 

While  the  American  Minister  in  Paris  and  his 
wife  were  nursing  their  predecessor's  victim  back 
into  life,  a  thrill  of  joy  was  passing  through  Euro- 
pean courts,  on  a  rumor  that  the  dreaded  author 
had  been  guillotined.  Paine  had  the  satisfaction 
of  reading,  at  Monroe's  fireside,  his  own  last  words 
on  the  scaffold,^  and  along  with  it  an  invitation  of 

'  Morris'  royal  proclamations  are  printed  in  full  in  his  biography  by  Jared 
Sparks. 

'  "The  last  dying  words  of  Thomas  Paine.  Executed  at  the  Guillotine 
in  France  on  the  ist  of  September,  1794."  The  dying  speech  begins  :  "  Ye 
numerous  spectators  gathered  around,  pray  give  ear  to  my  last  words  ;  I  am 
determined  to  speak  the  Truth  in  these  my  last  moments,  altho'  I  have 
written  and  spoke  nothing  but  lies  all  my  life."  There  is  nothing  in  the 
witless  leaflet  worth  quoting.  When  Paine  was  burnt  in  effigy,  in  1792,  it 
appears  to  have  been  with  accompaniments  of  the  same  kind.  Before  me  is 
a  small  placard,  which  reads  thus  :  "  The  Dying  Speech  and  Confession  of 
the  Arch-Traitor  Thomas  Paine.    Who  was  executed  at  Oakham  on  Thurs- 

152 


1795] 


A  restoration: 


153 


the  Convention  to  return  to  its  bosom.  On  Decem- 
ber 7,  I  794,  Thibaudeau  had  spoken  to  that  assem- 
bly in  the  following  terms  : 

"  It  yet  remains  for  the  Convention  to  perform  an  act  of 
justice.  I  reclaim  one  of  the  most  zealous  defenders  of  liberty 
— Thomas  Paine.  {Loud  applatise.)  My  reclamation  is  for  a 
man  who  has  honored  his  age  by  his  energy  in  defence  of  the 
rights  of  humanity,  and  who  is  so  gloriously  distinguished  by 
his  part  in  the  American  revolution.  A  naturalized  French- 
man' by  a  decree  of  the  legislative  assembly,  he  was  nominated 
by  the  people.  It  was  only  by  an  intrigue  that  he  was  driven 
from  the  Convention,  the  pretext  being  a  decree  excluding 
foreigners  from  representing  the  French  people.  There  were 
only  two  foreigners  in  the  Convention  ;  one  [Anacharsis 
Clootz]  is  dead,  and  I  speak  not  of  him,  but  of  Thomas  Paine, 
who  powerfully  contributed  to  establish  liberty  in  a  country 
allied  with  the  French  Republic.  I  demand  that  he  be  recalled 
to  the  bosom  of  the  Convention."  {Applause.) 

The  Moniteur,  from  which  I  translate,  reports 
the  unanimous  adoption  of  Thibaudeau's  motion. 
But  this  was  not  enough.  The  Committee  of  Pub- 
lic Instruction,  empowered  to  award  pensions  for 
literary  services,  reported  (January  3,  1795)  as 
the  first  name  on  their  list,  Thomas  Paine.  Chenier, 
in  reading  the  report,  claimed  the  honor  of  having 
originally  suggested  Paine's  name  as  an  honorary 
citizen  of  France,  and  denounced,  amid  applause, 
the  decree  against  foreigners  under  which  the  great 
author  had  suffered. 

day  the  27th  of  December  1792.  This  morning  the  Officers  usually  attend- 
ing on  such  occasions  went  in  procession  on  Horseback  to  the  County  Gaol, 
and  demanded  the  Body  of  the  Arch-Traitor,  and  from  thence  proceeded 
with  the  Criminal  drawn  in  a  Cart  by  an  Ass  to  the  usual  place  of  execution 
with  his  Pamphlet  called  the  '  Rights  of  Man  '  in  his  right  hand." 

'  Here  Thibaudeau  was  inexact.  In  the  next  sentence  but  one  he  rightly 
describes  Paine  as  a  foreigner.    The  allusion  to  "an  intrigue  "  is  significant. 


154 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


"  You  have  revoked  that  inhospitable  decree,  and  we  again 
see  Thomas  Paine,  the  man  of  genius  without  fortune,  our 
colleague,  dear  to  all  friends  of  humanity, — a  cosmopolitan, 
persecuted  equally  by  Pitt  and  by  Robespierre.  Notable 
epoch  in  the  life  of  this  philosopher,  who  opposed  the  arms  of 
Common  Sense  to  the  sword  of  Tyranny,  the  Rights  of  Man 
to  the  machiavelism  of  English  politicians  ;  and  who,  by  two 
immortal  works,  has  deserved  well  of  the  human  race,  and 
consecrated  liberty  in  the  two  worlds." 

Poor  as  he  was,  Paine  declined  this  Hterary  pen- 
sion. He  accepted  the  honors  paid  him  by  the  Con- 
vention, no  doubt  with  a  sorrow  at  the  contrasted 
silence  of  those  who  ruled  in  America.  Monroe, 
however,  encouraged  him  to  believe  that  he  was 
still  beloved  there,  and,  as  he  got  stronger,  a  great 
homesickness  came  upon  him.  The  kindly  host 
made  an  effort  to  satisfy  him.  On  January  4th  he 
(Monroe)  wrote  to  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  : 

"  Citizens  :  The  Decree  just  passed,  bearing  on  the  execu- 
tion of  Articles  23  and  24  of  the  Treaty  of  Friendship  and 
Commerce  between  the  two  Republics,  is  of  such  great  import- 
ance to  my  country,  that  I  think  it  expedient  to  send  it  there 
officially,  by  some  particularly  confidential  hand  ;  and  no  one 
seems  to  be  better  fitted  for  this  errand  than  Thomas  Paine. 
Having  resided  a  long  time  in  France,  and  having  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  the  many  vicissitudes  which  the  Republic  has 
passed,  he  will  be  able  to  explain  and  compare  the  happy  lot 
she  now  enjoys.  As  he  has  passed  the  same  himself,  remaining 
faithful  to  his  principles,  his  reports  will  be  the  more  trustwor- 
thy, and  consequently  produce  a  better  effect.  But  as  Citizen 
Paine  is  a  member  of  the  Convention,  I  thought  it  better  to  sub- 
mit this  subject  to  your  consideration.  If  this  affair  can  be 
arranged,  the  Citizen  will  leave  for  America  immediately,  via 
Bordeaux,  on  an  American  vessel  which  will  be  prepared  for 
him.  As  he  has  reason  to  fear  the  persecution  of  the  English 
government,  should  he  be  taken  prisoner,  he  desires  that  his 
departure  may  be  kept  a  secret. 

"  Jas.  Monroe." 


1795] 


A  RESTORATION. 


The  Convention  alone  could  give  a  passport  to 
one  of  its  members,  and  as  an  application  to  it 
would  make  Paine's  mission  known,  the  Committee 
returned  next  day  a  negative  answer. 

"  Citizen  :  We  see  with  satisfaction  and  without  surprise, 
that  you  attach  some  interest  to  sending  officially  to  the  United 
States  the  Decree  which  the  National  Convention  has  just  made, 
in  which  are  recalled  and  confirmed  the  reports  of  Friendship 
and  Commerce  existing  between  the  two  Republics. 

"  As  to  the  design  you  express  of  confiding  this  errand  to 
Citizen  Thomas  Paine,  we  must  observe  to  you  that  the  posi- 
tion he  holds  will  not  permit  him  to  accept  it.  Salutation  and 
Friendship. 

"  CAMBACERfes."  ' 

Liberty's  great  defender  gets  least  of  it  !  The 
large  seal  of  the  Committee — mottoed  "  Activity, 
Purity,  Attention  " — looks  like  a  wheel  of  fortune  ; 
but  one  year  before  it  had  borne  from  the  Conven- 
tion to  prison  the  man  it  now  cannot  do  without. 
France  now  especially  needs  the  counsel  of  shrewd 
and  friendly  American  heads.  There  are  indica- 
tions that  Jay  in  London  is  carrying  the  United 
States  into  Pitt's  combination  against  the  Repub- 
lic, just  as  it  is  breaking  up  on  the  Continent. 

Monroe's  magnanimity  towards  Paine  found  its 
reward.  He  brought  to  his  house,  and  back  into 
life,  just  the  one  man  in  France  competent  to  give 
him  the  assistance  he  needed.  Comprehending 
the  history  of  the  Revolution,  knowing  the  record 
of  every  actor  in  it,  Paine  was  able  to  revise 
Monroe's  impressions,  and  enable  him  to  check  cal- 
umnies circulated  in  America.    The  despatches  of 

'  State  Archives  of  France.  Etats  Unis,  vol.  xliii.  Monroe  dates  his 
letter,  "  19th  year  of  the  American  Republic." 


156 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  \M9S 


Monroe  are  of  high  historic  value,  largely  through 
knowledge  derived  from  Paine. 

Nor  was  this  all.  In  Monroe's  instructions  em- 
phasis was  laid  on  the  importance  to  the  United 
States  of  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and 
its  ultimate  control.'  Paine's  former  enthusiasm  in 
this  matter  had  possibly  been  utilized  by  Gouver- 
neur  Morris  to  connect  him,  as  we  have  seen,  with 
Genet's  proceedings.  The  Kentuckians  consulted 
Paine  at  a  time  when  expulsion  of  the  Spaniard 
was  a  patriotic  American  scheme.  This  is  shown 
in  a  letter  written  by  the  Secretary  of  State  (Ran- 
dolph) to  the  President,  February  27,  1794. 

"  Mr.  Brown  [Senator  of  Kentucky]  has  shown  me  a  letter 
from  the  famous  Dr.  O'Fallon  to  Captain  Herron,  dated  Oct. 
i8,  1793.  It  was  intercepted,  and  he  has  permitted  me  to  take 
the  following  extract  : — '  This  plan  (an  attack  on  Louisiana) 
was  digested  between  Gen.  Clarke  and  me  last  Christmas.  I 
framed  the  whole  of  the  correspondence  in  the  General's 
name,  and  corroborated  it  by  a  private  letter  of  my  own  to  Mr. 
Thomas  Paine,  of  the  National  Assembly,  with  whom  during 
the  late  war  I  was  very  intimate.  His  reply  reached  me  but  a 
few  days  since,  enclosed  in  the  General's  despatches  from  the 
Ambassador." 

'  "  The  conduct  of  Spain  towards  us  is  unaccountable  and  injurious.  Mr. 
Pinckney  is  by  this  time  gone  over  to  Madrid  as  our  envoy  extraordinary 
to  bring  matters  to  a  conclusion  some  way  or  other.  But  you  will  seize  any 
favorable  moment  to  execute  what  has  been  entrusted  to  you  respecting  the 
Mississippi." — Randolph  io  Monroe,  February  15,  1795. 

Two  important  historical  works  have  recently  appeared  relating  to  the 
famous  Senator  Brown.  The  first  is  a  publication  of  the  Filson  Club  : 
"The  Political  Beginnings  of  Kentucky,"  by  John  Mason  Brown.  The 
second  is  :  "  The  .Spanish  Conspiracy,"  by  Thomas  Marshall  Green  (Cincin- 
nati, Robert  Clarke  &  Co.,  i8gl).  The  intercepted  letter  quoted  above  has 
some  bearing  on  the  controversy  between  these  authors.  Apparently,  Senator 
Brown,  like  many  other  good  patriots,  favored  independent  action  in  Kentucky 
when  that  seemed  for  the  welfare  of  the  United  States,  but,  when  the  situation 
had  changed,  Brown  is  found  co-operating  with  Washington  and  Randolph. 


1795] 


A  RESTORATION. 


157 


That  such  letters  (freely  written  as  they  were 
at  the  beginning  of  1 793)  were  now  intercepted  in- 
dicates the  seriousness  of  the  situation  time  had 
brought  on.  The  administration  had  soothed  the 
Kentuckians  by  pledges  of  pressing  the  matter  by 
negotiations.  Hence  Monroe's  instructions,  in 
carrying  out  which  Paine  was  able  to  lend  a  hand. 

In  the  State  Archives  at  Paris  {^£tats  Unis,  vol. 
xliii.)  there  are  two  papers  marked  "  Thomas 
Payne."  The  first  urges  the  French  Ministry  to 
seize  the  occasion  of  a  treaty  with  Spain  to  do  a 
service  to  the  United  States  :  let  the  free  naviga- 
tion of  the  Mississippi  be  made  by  France  a  condi- 
tion of  peace.  The  second  paper  (endorsed  "  3 
Ventose,  February  21,  1795")  proposes  that,  in 
addition  to  the  condition  made  to  Spain,  an  effort 
should  be  made  to  include  American  interests  in 
the  negotiation  with  England,  if  not  too  late.  The 
negotiation  with  England  was  then  finished,  but  the 
terms  unpublished.  Paine  recommended  that  the 
Convention  should  pass  a  resolution  that  freedom 
of  the  Mississippi  should  be  a  condition  of  peace 
with  Spain,  which  would  necessarily  accept  it  ;  and 
that,  in  case  the  arrangement  with  England  should 
prove  unsatisfactory,  any  renewed  negotiations 
should  support  the  just  reclamations  of  their  Amer- 
ican ally  for  the  surrender  of  the  frontier  posts  and 
for  depredations  on  their  trade.  Paine  points  out 
that  such  a  declaration  could  not  prolong  the  war 
a  day,  nor  cost  France  an  obole  ;  whereas  it  might 
have  a  decisive  effect  in  the  United  States,  espe- 
cially if  Jay's  treaty  with  England  should  be  repre- 
hensible, and   should   be  approved  in  America. 


158 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l795 


That  generosity  "would  certainly  raise  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  French  Republic  to  the  most  eminent 
degree  of  splendour,  and  lower  in  proportion  that 
of  her  enemies."  It  would  undo  the  bad  eflects  of 
the  depredations  of  French  privateers  on  American 
vessels,  which  rejoiced  the  British  party  in  the 
United  States  and  discouraged  the  friends  of 
liberty  and  humanity  there.  It  would  acquire  for 
France  the  merit  which  is  her  due,  supply  her 
American  friends  with  strength  against  the  in- 
trigues of  England,  and  cement  the  alliance  of  the 
Republics. 

This  able  paper  might  have  been  acted  on,  but 
for  the  anger  in  France  at  the  Jay  treaty. 

While  writing  in  Monroe's  house,  the  invalid, 
with  an  abscess  in  his  side  and  a  more  painful  sore 
in  his  heart — for  he  could  not  forget  that  Wash- 
ington had  forgotten  him, — receives  tidings  of  new 
events  through  cries  in  the  street.  In  the  month 
of  his  release  they  had  been  resonant  with  yells  as 
the  Jacobins  were  driven  away  and  their  rooms 
turned  to  a  Normal  School.  Then  came  shouts, 
when,  after  trial,  the  murderous  committeemen 
were  led  to  execution  or  exile.  In  the  early  weeks 
of  1 795  the  dread  sounds  of  retribution  subside, 
and  there  is  a  cry  from  the  street  that  comes  nearer 
to  Paine's  heart — "  Bread  and  the  Constitution  of 
Ninety-three  !  "  He  knows  that  it  is  his  Constitu- 
tion for  which  they  are  really  calling,  for  they  can- 
not understand  the  Robespierrian  adulteration  of  it 
given  out,  as  one  said,  as  an  opiate  to  keep  the 
country  asleep.  The  people  are  sick  of  revolution- 
ary rule.    These  are  the  people  in  whom  Paine  has 


1795] 


A  restoration: 


159 


ever  believed, — the  honest  hearts  that  summoned 
him,  as  author  of  "  The  Rights  of  Man,"  to  help  form 
their  Constitution.  They,  he  knows,  had  to  be  de- 
ceived when  cruel  deeds  were  done,  and  heard  of 
such  deeds  with  as  much  horror  as  distant  peoples. 
Over  that  Constitution  for  which  they  were  clamor- 
ing he  and  his  lost  friend  Condorcet  had  spent 
many  a  day  of  honest  toil.  Of  the  original  Com- 
mittee of  Nine  appointed  for  the  work,  six  had 
perished  by  the  revolution,  one  was  banished,  and 
two  remained — Sieyes  and  Paine.  That  original 
Committee  had  gradually  left  the  task  to  Paine  and 
Condorcet, — Sieyes,  because  he  had  no  real  sympa- 
thy with  republicanism,  though  he  honored  Paine.' 
When  afterwards  asked  how  he  had  survived  the 
Terror,  Sieyes  answered,  "  I  lived."  He  lived  by 
bending,  and  now  leads  a  Committee  of  Eleven  on 
the  Constitution,  while  Paine,  who  did  not  bend,  is 
disabled.  Paine  knows  Sieyes  well.  The  people 
will  vainly  try  for  the  "  Constitution  of  Ninety- 
three."  They  shall  have  no  Constitution  but  of 
Sieyes'  making,  and  in  it  will  be  some  element  of 
monarchy.  Sieyes  presently  seemed  to  retire  from 
the  Committee,  but  old  republicans  did  not  doubt 
that  he  was  all  the  more  swaying  it. 

'  "  Mr.  Thomas  Paine  is  one  of  those  men  who  have  contributed  the 
most  to  establish  the  liberty  of  America.  His  ardent  love  of  humanity,  and 
his  hatred  of  every  sort  of  tyranny,  have  induced  him  to  take  up  in  England 
the  defence  of  the  French  revolution,  against  the  amphigorical  declamation 
of  Mr.  Burke.  His  work  has  been  translated  into  our  language,  and  is  uni- 
versally known.  What  French  patriot  is  there  who  has  not  already,  from 
the  bottom  of  his  heart,  thanked  this  foreigner  for  having  strengthened  our 
cause  by  all  the  powers  of  his  reason  and  reputation  ?  It  is  with  pleasure 
that  I  observe  an  opportunity  of  offering  him  the  tribute  of  my  gratitude 
and  my  esteem  for  the  truly  philosophical  application  of  talents  so  distin- 
guished as  his  own." — Sieyes  in  the  Moniteur,  July  6,  1791. 


i6o 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l795 


So  once  more  Paine  seizes  his  pen  ;  his  hand  is 
feeble,  but  his  intellect  has  lost  no  fibre  of  force, 
nor  his  heart  its  old  faith.  His  trust  in  man  has 
passed  through  the  ordeal  of  seeing  his  friends — 
friends  of  man — murdered  by  the  people's  Conven- 
tion, himself  saved  by  accident  ;  it  has  survived  the 
apparent  relapse  of  Washington  into  the  arms  of 
George  the  Third.  The  ingratitude  of  his  faith- 
fully-served America  is  represented  by  an  abscess  in 
his  side,  which  may  strike  into  his  heart — in  a  sense 
has  done  so — but  will  never  reach  his  faith  in 
liberty,  equality,  and  humanity. 

Early  in  July  the  Convention  is  reading  Paine's 
"  Dissertation  on  First  Principles  of  Government." 
His  old  arguments  against  hereditary  right,  or  in- 
vesting even  an  elective  individual  with  extraordi- 
nary power,  are  repeated  with  illustrations  from  the 
passing  Revolution. 

"  Had  a  Constitution  been  established  two  years  ago,  as 
ought  to  have  been  done,  the  violences  that  have  since  deso- 
lated France  and  injured  the  character  of  the  revolution, 
would,  in  my  opinion,  have  been  prevented.  The  nation 
would  have  had  a  bond  of  union,  and  every  individual  would 
have  known  the  line  of  conduct  he  was  to  follow.  But,  in- 
stead of  this,  a  revolutionary  government,  a  thing  without  either 
principle  or  authority,  was  substituted  in  its  place  ;  virtue  or 
crime  depended  upon  accident  ;  and  that  which  was  patriotism 
one  day,  became  treason  the  next.  All  these  things  have  fol- 
lowed from  the  want  of  a  Constitution  ;  for  it  is  the  nature  and 
intention  or  a  Constitution  to  prevent  governing  by  party,  by 
establishing  a  common  principle  that  shall  limit  and  control  the 
power  and  impulse  of  party,  and  that  says  to  all  parties,  Thus 
far  shall  Ihou  go,  arid  no  farlher.  But  in  the  absence  of  a  Con- 
stitution men  look  entirely  to  party  ;  and  instead  of  principle 
governing  party,  party  governs  principle. 


1795]  RESTORATION.  161 

"  An  avidity  to  punish  is  always  dangerous  to  liberty.  It 
leads  men  to  stretch,  to  misinterpret  and  to  misapply  even  the 
best  of  laws.  He  that  would  make  his  own  liberty  secure, 
must  guard  even  his  enemy  from  oppression  ;  for  if  he  violates 
this  duty,  he  establishes  a  precedent  that  will  reach  himself." 

Few  of  Paine's  pamphlets  better  deserve  study 
than  this.  In  writing  it,  he  tells  us,  he  utilized  the 
fragment  of  a  work  begun  at  some  time  not  stated, 
which  he  meant  to  dedicate  to  the  people  of  Hol- 
land, then  contemplating  a  revolution.  It  is  a  con- 
densed statement  of  the  principles  underlying  the 
Constitution  written  by  himself  and  Condorcet, 
now  included  among  Condorcet's  works.  They 
who  imagine  that  Paine's  political  system  was  that 
of  the  democratic  demagogues  may  undeceive 
themselves  by  pondering  this  pamphlet  It  has 
been  pointed  out,  on  a  previous  page  of  this  work, 
that  Paine  held  the  representative  to  be  not  the 
voter's  mouthpiece,  but  his  delegated  sovereignty. 
The  representatives  of  a  people  are  therefore  its 
supreme  power.  The  executive,  the  ministers,  are 
merely  as  chiefs  of  the  national  police  engaged  in 
enforcing  the  laws.  They  are  mere  employes, 
without  any  authority  at  all,  except  of  superintend- 
ence. "  The  executive  department  is  official,  and 
is  subordinate  to  the  legislative  as  the  body  is  to 
the  mind."  The  chief  of  these  official  departments 
is  the  judicial.  In  appointing  officials  the  most 
important  rule  is,  "  never  to  invest  any  individual 
with  extraordinary  power ;  for  besides  being 
tempted  to  misuse  it,  it  will  excite  contention  and 
commotion  in  the  nation  for  the  office." 

All  of  this  is  in  logical  conformity  with  the  same 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [^795 


author's  "  Rights  of  Man,"  which  James  Madison 
declared  to  be  an  exposition  of  the  principles  on 
which  the  United  States  government  is  based.  It 
would  be  entertaining  to  observe  the  countenance 
of  a  President  should  our  House  of  Representa- 
tives address  him  as  a  chief  of  national  police. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  Paine's  "  Disserta- 
tion "  a  new  French  Constitution  was  textually  sub- 
mitted for  popular  consideration.  Although  in  many 
respects  it  accorded  fairly  well  with  Paine's  principles, 
it  contained  one  provision  which  he  believed  would 
prove  fatal  to  the  Republic.  This  was  the  limita- 
tion of  citizenship  to  payers  of  direct  taxes,  except 
soldiers  who  had  fought  in  one  or  more  campaigns 
for  the  Republic,  this  being  a  sufficient  qualification. 
This  revolutionary  disfranchisement  of  near  half  the 
nation  brought  Paine  to  the  Convention  (July  7th) 
for  the  first  time  since  the  fall  of  the  Brissotins, 
two  years  before.  The  scene  at  his  return  was  im- 
pressive. A  special  motion  was  made  by  Lan- 
thenas  and  unanimously  adopted,  "  that  permission 
be  granted  Thomas  Paine  to  deliver  his  sentiments 
on  the  declaration  of  rights  and  the  Constitution." 
With  feeble  step  he  ascended  the  tribune,  and  stood 
while  a  secretary  read  his  speech.  Of  all  present 
this  man  had  suffered  most  by  the  confusion  of  the 
mob  with  the  people,  which  caused  the  reaction  on 
which  was  floated  the  device  he  now  challenged. 
It  is  an  instance  of  idealism  rare  in  political  history. 
The  speech  opens  with  words  that  caused  emotion. 

"  Citizens,  The  effects  of  a  malignant  fever,  with  which  I 
was  afflicted  during  a  rigorous  confinement  in  the  Luxembourg, 
have  thus  long  prevented  me  from  attending  at  my  post  in  the 


1795] 


A  RESTORATION. 


163 


bosom  of  the  Convention  ;  and  the  magnitude  of  the  subject 
under  discussion,  and  no  other  consideration  on  earth,  could 
induce  me  now  to  repair  to  my  station.  A  recurrence  to  the 
vicissitudes  I  have  experienced,  and  the  critical  situations  in 
which  I  have  been  placed  in  consequence  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution, will  throw  upon  what  I  now  propose  to  submit  to  the 
Convention  the  most  unequivocal  proofs  of  my  integrity,  and 
the  rectitude  of  those  principles  which  have  uniformly  influ- 
enced my  conduct.  In  England  I  was  proscribed  for  having 
vindicated  the  French  Revolution,  and  I  have  suffered  a 
rigorous  imprisonment  in  France  for  having  pursued  a  similar 
line  of  conduct.  During  the  reign  of  terrorism  I  was  a  pris- 
oner for  eight  long  months,  and  remained  so  above  three 
months  after  the  era  of  the  loth  Thermidor.  I  ought,  however, 
to  state,  that  I  was  not  persecuted  by  the  people,  either 
of  England  or  France.  The  proceedings  in  both  countries 
were  the  effects  of  the  despotism  existing  in  their  respective 
governments.  But,  even  if  my  persecution  had  originated  in 
the  people  at  large,  my  principles  and  conduct  would  still 
have  remained  the  same.  Principles  which  are  influenced  and 
subject  to  the  control  of  tyranny  have  not  their  foundation  in 
the  heart." 

Though  they  slay  him  Paine  will  trust  in  the 
people.  There  seems  a  slight  slip  of  memory  ;  his 
imprisonment,  by  revolutionary  calendar,  lasted 
ten  and  a  half  months,  or  3 1 5  days  ;  but  there  is  no 
failure  of  conviction  or  of  thought.  He  points  out 
the  inconsistency  of  the  disfranchisement  of  indi- 
rect tax-payers  with  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  and 
the  opportunity  afforded  partisan  majorities  to 
influence  suffrage  by  legislation  on  the  mode  of 
collecting  taxes.  The  soldier,  enfranchised  without 
other  qualification,  would  find  his  children  slaves. 

"  If  you  subvert  the  basis  of  the  Revolution,  if  you  dispense 
with  principles  and  substitute  expedients,  you  will  extinguish 
that  enthusiasm  which  has  hitherto  been  the  life  and  soul  of 


164 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


the  revolution  ;  and  you  will  substitute  in  its  place  nothing  but 
a  cold  indifference  and  self-interest,  which  will  again  degen- 
•  erate  into  intrigue,  cunning,  and  effeminacy." 

There  was  an  educational  test  of  suffrage  to 
which  he  did  not  object.  "  Where  knowledge  is  a 
duty,  ignorance  is  a  crime."  But  in  his  appeal  to 
pure  principle  simple-hearted  Paine  knew  nothing 
of  the  real  test  of  the  Convention's  votes.  This 
white-haired  man  was  the  only  eminent  member  of 
the  Convention  with  nothing  in  his  record  to  cause 
shame  or  fear.  He  almost  alone  among  them  had 
the  honor  of  having  risked  his  head  rather  than 
execute  Louis,  on  whom  he  had  looked  as  one  man 
upon  another.  He  alone  had  refused  to  enter  the 
Convention  when  it  abandoned  the  work  for  which 
it  was  elected  and  became  a  usurping  tribunal. 
During  two  fearful  years  the  true  Republic  had 
been  in  Paine's  house  and  garden,  where  he  con- 
versed with  his  disciples  ;  or  in  Luxembourg  prison, 
where  he  won  all  hearts,  as  did  imprisoned  George 
Fox,  who  reappeared  in  him,  and  where,  beneath 
the  knife  whose  fall  seemed  certain,  he  criticised 
consecrated  dogmas.  With  this  record  Paine 
spoke  that  day  to  men  who  feared  to  face  the 
honest  sentiment  of  the  harried  peasantry.  Some 
of  the  members  had  indeed  been  terrorized,  but  a 
majority  shared  the  disgrace  of  the  old  Conven- 
tion. They  were  jeered  at  on  the  streets.  The 
heart  of  France  was  throbbing  again,  and  what 
would  become  of  these  "  Conventionnels,"  when 
their  assembly  should  die  in  giving  birth  to  a 
government  ?  They  must  from  potentates  become 
pariahs.     Their  aim  now  was  to  prolong  their 


1795] 


A  restoration: 


165 


political  existence.  The  constitutional  narrowing 
of  the  suffrage  was  in  anticipation  of  the  decree 
presently  appended,  that  two  thirds  of  the  new 
legislature  should  be  chosen  from  the  Convention. 

Paine's  speech  was  delivered  against  a  foregone 
conclusion.  This  was  his  last  appearance  in  the 
Convention.  Out  of  it  he  naturally  dropped  when 
it  ended  (October  26,  1795),  with  the  organization 
of  the  Directory.  Being  an  American  he  would 
not  accept  candidature  in  a  foreign  government. 


# 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON. 

Monroe,  in  a  letter  of  September  15th  to  his 
relative,  Judge  Joseph  Jones,  of  Fredericksburg, 
Virginia,  after  speaking  of  the  Judge's  son  and  his 
tutor  at  St.  Germain,  adds  : 

"  As  well  on  his  account  as  that  of  our  child,  who  is  likewise 
at  St.  Germain,  we  had  taken  rooms  there,  with  the  intention 
of  occupying  for  a  month  or  two  in  the  course  of  the  autumn, 
but  fear  it  will  not  be  in  our  power  to  do  so,  on  account  of  the 
ill-health  of  Mr.  Paine,  who  has  lived  in  my  house  for  about 
ten  months  past.  He  was  upon  my  arrival  confined  in  the 
Luxembourg,  and  released  on  my  application  ;  after  which, 
being  ill,  he  has  remained  with  me.  For  some  time  the  pros- 
pect of  his  recovery  was  good  ;  his  malady  being  an  abscess  in 
his  side,  the  consequence  of  a  severe  fever  in  the  Luxembourg. 
Latterly  his  symptoms  have  become  worse,  and  the  prospect 
now  is  that  he  will  not  be  able  to  hold  out  more  than  a  month 
or  two  at  the  furthest.  I  shall  certainly  pay  the  utmost  atten- 
tion to  this  gentleman,  as  he  is  one  of  those  whose  merits  in  our 
Revolution  were  most  distinguished."  ' 

Paine's  speech  in  the  Convention  told  sadly  on 
his  health.  Again  he  had  to  face  death.  As  when, 
in  1793,  the  guillotine  rising  over  him,  he  had  set 
about  writing  his  last  bequest,  the  "  Age  of  Reason," 
he  now  devoted  himself  to  its  completion.  The 

'  I  am  indebted  to  Mrs.  Gouverneur,  of  Washington,  for  this  letter, 
which  is  among  the  invaluable  papers  of  her  ancestor,  President  Monroe, 
which  surely  should  be  secured  for  our  national  archives. 

166 


1795] 


THE  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON. 


167 


manuscript  of  the  second  part,  begun  in  prison, 
had  been  in  the  printer's  hands  some  time  before 
Monroe  wrote  of  his  approaching  end.  When  the 
book  appeared,  he  was  so  low  that  his  death  was 
again  reported. 

So  far  as  France  was  concerned,  there  was  light 
about  his  eventide.  "  Almost  as  suddenly,"  so  he 
wrote,  "  as  the  morning  light  dissipates  darkness, 
did  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution  change 
the  face  of  affairs  in  France.  Security  succeeded 
to  terror,  prosperity  to  distress,  plenty  to  famine, 
and  confidence  increased  as  the  days  multiplied." 
This  may  now  seem  morbid  optimism,  but  it  was 
shared  by  the  merry  youth,  and  the  pretty  dames, 
whose  craped  arms  did  not  prevent  their  sandalled 
feet  and  Greek-draped  forms  from  dancing  in  their 
transient  Golden  Age.  Of  all  this,  we  may  be 
sure,  the  invalid  hears  many  a  beguiling  story  from 
Madame  Monroe. 

But  there  is  a  grief  in  his  heart  more  cruel  than 
death.  The  months  have  come  and  gone, — more 
than  eighteen, — since  Paine  was  cast  into  prison, 
but  as  yet  no  word  of  kindness  or  inquiry  had  come 
from  Washington.  Early  in  the  year,  on  the 
President's  sixty-third  birthday,  Paine  had  written 
him  a  letter  of  sorrowful  and  bitter  reproach,  which 
Monroe  persuaded  him  not  to  send,  probably 
because  of  its  censures  on  the  ministerial  failures 
of  Morris,  and  "  the  pusillanimous  conduct  of  Jay 
in  England."  It  now  seems  a  pity  that  Monroe 
did  not  encourage  Paine  to  send  Washington,  in 
substance,  the  personal  part  of  his  letter,  which  was 
in  the  following  terms  : 


1 68  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l795 

"  As  it  is  always  painful  to  reproach  those  one  would  wish  to 
respect,  it  is  not  without  some  difficulty  that  I  have  taken  the 
resolution  to  write  to  you.  The  danger  to  which  I  have  been 
exposed  cannot  have  been  unknown  to  you,  and  the  guarded 
silence  you  have  observed  upon  that  circumstance,  is  what  I 
ought  not  to  have  expected  from  you,  either  as  a  friend  or  as  a 
President  of  the  United  States. 

"  You  knew  enough  of  my  character  to  be  assured  that  I 
could  not  have  deserved  imprisonment  in  France,  and,  without 
knowing  anything  more  than  this,  you  had  sufficient  ground  to 
have  taken  some  interest  for  my  safety.  Every  motive  arising 
from  recollection  ought  to  have  suggested  to  you  the  consist- 
ency of  such  a  measure.  But  I  cannot  find  that  you  have  so 
much  as  directed  any  enquiry  to  be  made  whether  I  was  in 
prison  or  at  liberty,  dead  or  alive  ;  what  the  cause  of  that 
imprisonment  was,  or  whether  there  was  any  service  or  assist- 
ance you  could  render.  Is  this  what  I  ought  to  have  expected 
from  America  after  the  part  I  had  acted  towards  her  ?  Or, 
will  it  redound  to  her  honor  or  to  your's  that  I  tell  the  story  ? 

"  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  you  have  not  served  America 
with  more  fidelity,  or  greater  zeal,  or  greater  disinterestedness, 
than  myself,  and  perhaps  with  not  better  effect.  After  the 
revolution  of  America  had  been  established,  you  rested  at 
home  to  partake  its  advantages,  and  I  ventured  into  new  scenes 
of  difficulty  to  extend  the  principles  which  that  revolution  had 
produced.  In  the  progress  of  events  you  beheld  yourself  a 
president  in  America  and  me  a  prisoner  in  France  :  you  folded 
your  arms,  forgot  your  friend,  and  became  silent. 

"  As  everything  I  have  been  doing  in  Europe  was  connected 
with  my  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  America,  I  ought  to  be 
the  more  surprised  at  this  conduct  on  the  part  of  her  govern- 
ment. It  leaves  me  but  one  mode  of  explanation,  which  is, 
that  everything  is  not  as  it  ought  to  be  amongst  you,  and  that 
the  presence  of  a  man  who  might  disapprove,  and  who  had 
credit  enough  with  the  country  to  be  heard  and  believed,  was 
not  wished  for.  This  was  the  operating  motive  of  the  despotic 
faction  that  imprisoned  me  in  France  (though  the  pretence  was, 
that  I  was  a  foreigner)  ;  and  those  that  have  been  silent  towards 
me  in  America,  appear  to  me  to  have  acted  from  the  same 
motive.    It  is  impossible  for  me  to  discover  any  other." 


1795] 


THE  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON. 


169 


Unwilling  as  all  are  to  admit  anything  dispara- 
ging to  Washington,  justice  requires  the  fair  con- 
sideration of  Paine's  complaint.  There  were  in 
his  hands  many  letters  proving  Washington's 
friendship,  and  his  great  appreciation  of  Paine's 
services.  Paine  had  certainly  done  nothing  to 
forfeit  his  esteem.  The  "  Age  of  Reason  "  had  not 
appeared  in  America  early  enough  to  affect  the 
matter,  even  should  we  suppose  it  offensive  to  a 
deist  like  Washington.  The  dry  approval,  for- 
warded by  the  Secretary  of  State,  of  Monroe's 
reclamation  of  Paine,  enhanced  the  grievance.  It 
admitted  Paine's  American  citizenship.  It  was  not 
then  an  old  friend  unhappily  beyond  his  help,  but 
a  fellow-citizen  whom  he  could  legally  protect, 
whom  the  President  had  left  to  languish  in  prison, 
and  in  hourly  danger  of  death.  During  six  months 
he  saw  no  visitor,  he  heard  no  word,  from  the 
country  for  which  he  had  fought.  To  Paine  it 
could  appear  only  as  a  sort  of  murder.  And, 
although  he  kept  back  the  letter,  at  his  friend's 
desire,  he  felt  that  it  might  yet  turn  out  to  be 
murder.  Even  so  it  seemed,  six  months  later,  when 
the  effects  of  his  imprisonment,  combined  with  his 
grief  at  Washington's  continued  silence  (surely 
Monroe  must  have  written  on  the  subject),  brought 
him  to  death's  door.  One  must  bear  in  mind  also 
the  disgrace,  the  humiliation  of  it,  for  a  man  who 
had  been  reverenced  as  a  founder  of  the  American 
Republic,  and  its  apostle  in  France.  This,  indeed, 
had  made  his  last  three  months  in  prison,  after 
there  had  been  ample  time  to  hear  from  Washing- 
ton, heavier  than  all  the  others.    After  the  fall  of 


170 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Robespierre  the  prisons  were  rapidly  emptied — 
from  twenty  to  forty  liberations  daily, — the  one 
man  apparently  forgotten  being  he  who  wrote,  "  in 
the  times  that  tried  men's  souls,"  the  words  that 
Washington  ordered  to  be  read  to  his  dispirited 
soldiers. 

And  now  death  approaches.  If  there  can  be  any 
explanation  of  this  long  neglect  and  silence,  knowl- 
edge of  it  would  soothe  the  author's  dying  pillow  ; 
and  though  there  be  little  probability  that  he  can 
hold  out  so  long,  a  letter  (September  20th)  is  sent 
to  Washington,  under  cover  to  Franklin  Bache. 

"  Sir, — I  had  written  you  a  letter  by  Mr.  Letombe,  French 
consul,  but,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Monroe,  I  withdrew  it,  and 
the  letter  is  still  by  me.  I  was  the  more  easily  prevailed  upon 
to  do  this,  as  it  was  then  my  intention  to  have  returned  to 
America  the  latter  end  of  the  present  year  (1795  ;)  but  the 
illness  I  now  suffer  prevents  me.  In  case  I  had  come,  I  should 
have  applied  to  you  for  such  parts  of  your  official  letters  (and 
your  private  ones,  if  you  had  chosen  to  give  them)  as  contained 
any  instructions  or  directions  either  to  Mr.  Monroe,  to  Mr. 
Morris,  or  to  any  other  person,  respecting  me  ;  for  after  you 
were  informed  of  my  imprisonment  in  France  it  was  incumbent 
on  you  to  make  some  enquiry  into  the  cause,  as  you  might  very 
well  conclude  that  I  had  not  the  opportunity  of  informing  you 
of  it.  I  cannot  understand  your  silence  upon  this  subject  upon 
any  other  ground,  than  as  connivance  at  my  imprisonment  ; 
and  this  is  the  manner  in  which  it  is  understood  here,  and  will 
be  understood  in  America,  unless  you  will  give  me  authority 
for  contradicting  it.  I  therefore  write  you  this  letter,  to 
propose  to  you  to  send  me  copies  of  any  letters  you  have 
written,  that  I  may  remove  this  suspicion.  In  the  Second  Part 
of  the  "Age  of  Reason,"  I  have  given  a  memorandum  from  the 
handwriting  of  Robespierre,  in  which  he  proposed  a  decree  of 
accusation  against  me  '  for  the  interest  of  America  as  well  as 
of  France.'    He  could  have  no  cause  for  putting  America  in 


I79S]  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON.  \J\ 

the  case,  but  by  interpreting  the  silence  of  the  American  govern- 
ment into  connivance  and  consent.  I  was  imprisoned  on  the 
ground  of  being  born  in  England  ;  and  your  silence  in  not 
inquiring  the  cause  of  that  imprisonment,  and  reclaiming  me 
against  it,  was  tacitly  giving  me  up.  I  ought  not  to  have 
suspected  you  of  treachery  ;  but  whether  I  recover  from  the 
illness  I  now  suffer,  or  not,  I  shall  continue  to  think  you 
treacherous,  till  you  give  me  cause  to  think  otherwise.  I  am 
sure  you  would  have  found  yourself  more  at  your  ease  had  you 
acted  by  me  as  you  ought  ;  for  whether  your  desertion  of  me 
was  intended  to  gratify  the  English  government,  or  to  let  me 
fall  into  destruction  in  France  that  you  might  exclaim  the 
louder  against  the  French  Revolution  ;  or  whether  you  hoped 
by  my  extinction  to  meet  with  less  opposition  in  mounting  up 
the  American  government ;  either  of  these  will  involve  you  in 
reproach  you  will  not  easily  shake  off. 

"  Thomas  Paine." 

This  is  a  bitter  letter,  but  it  is  still  more  a  sorrow- 
ful one.  In  view  of  what  Washington  had  written 
of  Paine's  services,  and  for  the  sake  of  twelve  years 
of  camaraderie,  Washington  should  have  over- 
looked the  sharpness  of  a  deeply  wronged  and 
dying  friend,  and  written  to  him  what  his  Minister 
in  France  had  reported.  My  reader  already  knows, 
what  the  sufferer  knew  not,  that  a  part  of  Paine's 
grievance  against  Washington  was  unfounded. 
Washington  could  not  know  that  the  only  charge 
against  Paine  was  one  trumped  up  by  his  own 
Minister  in  France.  But,  if  he  ever  saw  the  letter 
just  quoted,  he  must  have  perceived  that  Paine 
was  laboring  under  an  error  in  supposing  that  no 
inquiry  had  been  made  into  his  case.  There  are 
facts  antecedent  to  the  letter  showing  that  his  com- 
plaint had  a  real  basis.  For  instance,  in  a  letter  to 
Monroe  (July  30th),  the  President's  interest  was 


172  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i795 

expressed  in  two  other  American  prisoners  in 
France — Archibald  Hunter  and  Shubael  Allen, — 
but  no  word  was  said  of  Paine.  There  was  cer- 
tainly a  change  in  Washington  towards  Paine,  and 
the  following  may  have  been  its  causes. 

1.  Paine  had  introduced  Genet  to  Morris,  and 
probably  to  public  men  in  America.  Genet  had 
put  an  affront  on  Morris,  and  taken  over  a  demand 
for  his  recall,  with  which  Morris  connected  Paine. 
In  a  letter  to  Washington  (private)  Morris  falsely 
insinuated  that  Paine  had  incited  the  actions  of 
Genet  which  had  vexed  the  President, 

2.  Morris,  perhaps  in  fear  that  Jefferson,  influ- 
enced by  Americans  in  Paris,  might  appoint  Paine 
to  his  place,  had  written  to  Robert  Morris  in  Phila- 
delphia slanders  of  Paine,  describing  him  as  a  sot 
and  an  object  of  contempt.  This  he  knew  would 
reach  Washington  without  passing  under  the  eye  of 
Paine's  friend,  Jefferson. 

3.  In  a  private  letter  Morris  related  that  Paine 
had  visited  him  with  Colonel  Oswald,  and  treated 
him  insolently.  Washington  particularly  disliked 
Oswald,  an  American  journalist  actively  opposing 
his  administration. 

4.  Morris  had  described  Paine  as  intriguing 
against  him,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  thus 
impeding  his  mission,  to  which  the  President  at- 
tached great  importance. 

5.  The  President  had  set  his  heart  on  bribing 
England  with  a  favorable  treaty  of  commerce  to 
give  up  its  six  military  posts  in  America.  The 
most  obnoxious  man  in  the  world  to  England  was 
Paine.    Any  interference  in  Paine's  behalf  would 


1795] 


THE  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON. 


^71 


not  only  have  offended  England,  but  appeared  as 
a  sort  of  repudiation  of  Morris'  intimacy  with  the 
English  court.  The  (alleged)  reclamation  of  Paine 
by  Morris  had  been  kept  secret  by  Washington 
even  from  friends  so  intimate  (at  the  time)  as 
Madison,  who  writes  of  it  as  having  never  been 
done.  So  carefully  was  avoided  the  publication  of 
anything  that  might  vex  England. 

6.  Morris  had  admonished  the  Secretary  of  State 
that  if  Paine's  imprisonment  were  much  noticed  it 
might  endanger  his  life.  So  conscience  was  free 
to  jump  with  policy. 

What  else  Morris  may  have  conveyed  to  Wash- 
ington against  Paine  can  be  only  matter  for  con- 
jecture ;  but  what  he  was  capable  of  saying  about 
those  he  wished  to  injure  may  be  gathered  from 
various  letters  of  his.  In  one  (December  19,  1795) 
he  tells  Washington  that  he  had  heard  from  a 
trusted  informant  that  his  Minister,  Monroe,  had 
told  various  Frenchmen  that  "  he  had  no  doubt  but 
that,  if  they  would  do  what  was  proper  here,  he 
and  his  friends  would  turn  out  Washington." 

Liability  to  imposition  is  the  weakness  of  strong 
natures.  Many  an  lago  of  canine  cleverness  has 
made  that  discovery.  But,  however  Washington's 
mind  may  have  been  poisoned  towards  Paine,  it 
seems  unaccountable  that,  after  receiving  the  letter 
of  September  20th,  he  did  not  mention  to  Monroe, 
or  to  somebody,  his  understanding  that  the  prisoner 
had  been  promptly  reclaimed.  His  silence  looks 
as  if  he  had  not  received  the  letter.  After  Edmund 
Randolph's  resignation  his  successor,  Pickering, 
suppressed  a  document  that  would  have  exculpated 


174 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1796 


him  in  Washington's  eyes,  and  it  is  now  among  the 
Pickering  papers.  Paine  had  an  enemy  in  Picker- 
ing. The  letter  of  Paine  was  sent  under  cover  to 
Benjamin  Franklin  Bache,  of  the  General  Adver- 
tiser, with  whom  as  with  other  republicans  Wash- 
ington had  no  intercourse.  Pickering  may  there- 
fore have  had  official  opportunity  to  intercept  it. 
The  President  was  no  longer  visited  by  his  old 
friends,  Madison  and  others,  and  they  could  not 
discuss  with  him  the  intelligence  they  were  receiv- 
ing about  Paine.  Madison,  in  a  letter  to  Jefferson 
(dated  at  Philadelphia,  January  lo,  1796),  says: 

"  I  have  a  letter  from  Thomas  Paine  which  breathes  the  same 
sentiments,  and  contains  some  keen  observations  on  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  government  here.  It  appears  that  the  neg- 
lect to  claim  him  as  an  American  citizen  when  confined  by- 
Robespierre,  or  even  to  interfere  in  any  way  whatever  in  his 
favor,  has  filled  him  with  an  indelible  rancor  against  the 
President,  to  whom  it  appears  he  has  written  on  the  subject 
[September  20,  1795].  His  letter  to  me  is  in  the  style  of  a  dy- 
ing one,  and  we  hear  that  he  is  since  dead  of  the  abscess  in 
his  side,  brought  on  by  his  imprisonment.  His  letter  desires 
that  he  may  be  remembered  to  you." 

Whatever  the  explanation  may  be,  no  answer 
came  from  Washington.  After  waiting  a  year 
Paine  employed  his  returning  strength  in  embody- 
ing the  letters  of  February  2 2d  and  September  20th, 
with  large  additions,  in  a  printed  Letter  to  George 
Washington.  The  story  of  his  imprisonment  and 
death  sentence  here  for  the  first  time  really  reached 
the  American  people.  His  personal  case  is  made 
preliminary  to  an  attack  on  Washington's  whole 
career.  The  most  formidable  part  of  the  pamphlet 
was  the  publication  of  Washington's  letter  to  the 


1796] 


THE  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON. 


Committee  of  Public  Safety,  which,  departing  from 
its  rule  of  secrecy  (in  anger  at  the  British  Treaty), 
thus  delivered  a  blow  not  easily  answerable.  The 
President's  letter  was  effusive  about  the  "alliance," 
"  closer  bonds  of  friendship,"  and  so  forth, — phrases 
which,  just  after  the  virtual  transfer  of  our  alliance 
to  the  enemy  of  France,  smacked  of  perfidy. 
Paine  attacks  the  treaty,  which  is  declared  to  have 
put  American  commerce  under  foreign  dominion. 
"  The  sea  is  not  free  to  her.  Her  right  to  navi- 
gate is  reduced  to  the  right  of  escaping ;  that  is, 
until  some  ship  of  England  or  France  stops  her 
vessels  and  carries  them  into  port."  The  minis- 
terial misconduct  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  and  his 
neglect  of  American  interests,  are  exposed  in  a  sharp 
paragraph.  Washington's  military  mistakes  are 
relentlessly  raked  up,  with  some  that  he  did  not 
commit,  and  the  credit  given  him  for  victories  won 
by  others  heavily  discounted. 

That  Washington  smarted  under  this  pamphlet 
appears  by  a  reference  to  it  in  a  letter  to  David 
Stuart,  January  8,  1797.  Speaking  of  himself  in 
the  third  person,  he  says  :  "  Although  he  is  soon  to 
become  a  private  citizen,  his  opinions  are  to  be 
knocked  down,  and  his  character  reduced  as  low  as 
they  are  capable  of  sinking  it,  even  by  resorting  to 
absolute  falsehoods.  As  an  evidence  whereof,  and 
of  the  plan  they  are  pursuing,  I  send  you  a  letter 
of  Mr.  Paine  to  me,  printed  in  this  city  [Phila- 
delphia], and  disseminated  with  great  industry." 
In  the  same  letter  he  says  :  "  Enclosed  you  will  re- 
ceive also  a  production  of  Peter  Porcupine,  alias 
William  Cobbett.    Making  allowances  for  the  as- 


176 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


perity  of  an  Englishman,  for  some  of  his  strong  and 
coarse  expressions,  and  a  want  of  ofificial  informa- 
tion as  to  many  facts,  it  is  not  a  bad  thing."'  Cob- 
bett's  answer  to  Paine's  personal  grievance  was 
really  an  arraignment  of  the  President.  He  under- 
takes to  prove  that  the  French  Convention  was  a 
real  government,  and  that  by  membership  in  it 
Paine  had  forfeited  his  American  citizenship.  But 
Monroe  had  formally  claimed  Paine  as  an  Ameri- 
can citizen,  and  the  President  had  officially  en- 
dorsed that  claim.  That  this  approval  was  unknown 
to  Cobbett  is  a  remarkable  fact,  showing  that  even 
such  small  and  tardy  action  in  Paine's  favor  was 
kept  secret  from  the  President's  new  British  and 
Federalist  allies. 

For  the  rest  it  is  a  pity  that  Washington  did  not 
specify  the  "  absolute  falsehoods  "  in  Paine's  pam- 
phlet, if  he  meant  the  phrase  to  apply  to  that.  It 
might  assist  us  in  discovering  just  how  the  case 
stood  in  his  mind.  He  may  have  been  indignant 
at  the  suggestion  of  his  connivance  with  Paine's 
imprisonment  ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Presi- 
dent had  been  brought  by  his  Minister  into  the 
conspiracy  which  so  nearly  cost  Paine  his  life. 

On  a  review  of  the  facts,  my  own  belief  is  that 
the  heaviest  part  of  Paine's  wrong  came  indirectly 
from  Great  Britain.  It  was  probably  one  more 
instance  of  Washington's  inability  to  weigh  any 
injustice  against  an  interest  of  this  country.  He 
ignored  compacts  of  capitulation  in  the  cases  of 
Burgoyne  and  Asgill,  in  the  Revolution  ;  and  when 


'  "  Porcupine's  Political  Censor,  for  December,  1796.  A  Letter  to  the 
Infamous  Tom.  Paine,  in  answer  to  his  letter  to  General  Washington." 


1796] 


THE  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON. 


177 


convinced  that  this  nation  must  engage  either  in 
war  or  commercial  alliance  with  England  he  virtu- 
ally broke  faith  with  France/  To  the  new  alliance 
he  sacrificed  his  most  faithful  friends  Edmund  Ran- 
dolph and  James  Monroe ;  and  to  it,  mainly,  was 
probably  due  his  failure  to  express  any  interest  in 
England's  outlaw,  Paine.  For  this  might  gain  pub- 
licity and  offend  the  government  with  which  Jay 
was  negotiating.  Such  was  George  Washington. 
Let  justice  add  that  he  included  himself  in  the  list 
of  patriotic  martyrdoms.  By  sacrificing  France 
and  embracing  George  III.  he  lost  his  old  friends, 
lost  the  confidence  of  his  own  State,  incurred 
denunciations  that,  in  his  own  words,  "  could 
scarcely  be  applied  to  a  Nero,  a  notorious  defaulter, 
or  even  to  a  common  pickpocket."  So  he  wrote 
before  Paine's  pamphlet  appeared,  which,  save  in 
the  personal  matter,  added  nothing  to  the  general 
accusations.  It  is  now  forgotten  that  with  one  ex- 
ception— Johnson — no  President  ever  went  out 
of  office  so  loaded  with  odium  as  Washington.  It 
was  the  penalty  of  Paine's  power  that,  of  the 
thousand  reproaches,  his  alone  survived  to  recoil 
on  his  memory  when  the  issues  and  the  circum- 
stances that  explain  if  they  cannot  justify  his  pam- 

'  In  a  marginal  note  on  Monroe's  "  View,  etc.,"  found  among  his  papers, 

Washington  writes  :  ' '  Did  then  the  situation  of  our  affairs  admit  of  any 

other  alternative  than  negotiation  or  war  ?  "    (Sparks'  "  Washington,"  xi., 

p.  505).    Since  writing  my  "  Life  of  Randolph,"  in  which  the  history  of  the 

British  treaty  is  followed,  I  found  in  the  French  Archives  (  Etats-Unis, 

vol.  ii.,  doc.  12)  Minister  Fauchet's  report  of  a  conversation  with  Secretary 

Randolph  in  which  he  (Randolph)  said  :  ' '  What  would  you  have  us  do  ?  We 

could  not  end  our  difficulties  with  the  English  but  by  a  war  or  a  friendly 

treaty.    We  were  not  prepared  for  war  ;  it  was  necessary  to  negotiate."  It 

is  now  tolerably  certain  that  there  was  ' '  bluff  "  on  the  part  of  the  British 

players,  in  London  and  Philadelphia,  but  it  won. 
Vol.  n.-i2 


178 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE, 


[1796 


phlet,  are  forgotten.  It  is  easy  for  the  Washington 
worshipper  of  to-day  to  condemn  Paine's  pamphlet, 
especially  as  he  is  under  no  necessity  of  answering 
it.  But  could  he  imagine  himself  abandoned  to 
long  imprisonment  and  imminent  death  by  an  old 
friend  and  comrade,  whose  letters  of  friendship  he 
cherished,  that  friend  avowedly  able  to  protect  him, 
with  no  apparent  explanation  of  the  neglect  but 
deference  to  an  enemy  against  whom  they  fought 
as  comrades,  an  unprejudiced  reader  would  hardly 
consider  Paine's  letter  unpardonable  even  where 
unjust.  Its  tremendous  indignation  is  its  apology 
so  far  as  it  needs  apology.  A  man  who  is  stabbed 
cannot  be  blamed  for  crying  out.  It  is  only  in 
poetry  that  dying  Desdemonas  exonerate  even  their 
deluded  slayers.  Paine,  who  when  he  wrote  these 
personal  charges  felt  himself  dying  of  an  abscess 
traceable  to  Washington's  neglect,  saw  not  lago 
behind  the  President.  His  private  demand  for  ex- 
planation, sent  through  Bache,  was  answered  only 
with  cold  silence.  "  I  have  long  since  resolved," 
wrote  Washington  to  Governor  Stone  (December 
6,  1795),  "for  the  present  time  at  least,  to  let  my 
calumniators  proceed  without  any  notice  being 
taken  of  their  invectives  by  myself,  or  by  any 
others  with  my  participation  or  knowledge."  But 
now,  nearly  a  year  later,  comes  Paine's  pamphlet, 
which  is  not  made  up  of  invectives,  but  of  state- 
ments of  fact.  If,  in  this  case,  Washington  sent, 
to  one  friend  at  least,  Cobbett's  answer  to  Paine, 
despite  its  errors  which  he  vaguely  mentions,  there 
appears  no  good  reason  why  he  should  not  have 
specified  those  errors,  and  Paine's  also.  By  his 
silence,  even  in  the  confidence  of  friendship,  the 


1796]  THE  SILENCE  OF  WASHINGTON. 


179 


truth  which  might  have  come  to  Hght  was  sup- 
pressed beyond  his  grave.  For  such  silence  the 
best  excuse  to  me  imaginable  is  that,  in  ignorance 
of  the  part  Morris  had  acted,  the  President's  mind 
may  have  been  in  bewilderment  about  the  exact 
facts. 

As  for  Paine's  public  letter,  it  was  an  answer  to 
Washington's  unjustifiable  refusal  to  answer  his 
private  one.  It  was  the  natural  outcry  of  an  ill 
and  betrayed  man  to  one  whom  we  now  know  to 
have  been  also  betrayed.  Its  bitterness  and  wrath 
measure  the  greatness  of  the  love  that  was  wounded. 
The  mutual  personal  services  of  Washington  and 
Paine  had  continued  from  the  beginning  of  the 
American  revolution  to  the  time  of  Paine's  depart- 
ure for  Europe  in  1787.  Although  he  recognized, 
as  Washington  himself  did,  the  commander's  mis- 
takes Paine  had  magnified  his  successes  ;  his  all- 
powerful  pen  defended  him  against  loud  charges  on 
account  of  the  retreat  to  the  Delaware,  and  the 
failures  near  Philadelphia.  In  those  days  what 
"Common  Sense"  wrote  was  accepted  as  the 
People's  verdict.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  the 
proposal  to  supersede  Washington  might  not  have 
succeeded   but   for   Paine's    fifth  Crisis. '  The 

'  ' '  When  a  party  was  forming,  in  the  latter  end  of  seventy-seven  and 
beginning  of  seventy-eight,  of  which  John  Adams  was  one,  to  remove  Mr. 
Washington  from  the  command  of  the  army,  on  the  complaint  that  he  did 
nothing,  I  wrote  the  fifth  number  of  the  Crisis,  and  published  it  at  Lancaster 
(Congress  then  being  at  Yorktown,  in  Pennsylvania),  to  ward  off  that 
meditated  blow  ;  for  though  I  well  knew  that  the  black  times  of  seventy-six 
were  the  natural  consequence  of  his  want  of  military  judgment  in  the 
choice  of  positions  into  which  the  army  was  put  about  New  York  and  New 
Jersey,  I  could  see  no  possible  advantage,  and  nothing  but  mischief,  that 
could  arise  by  distracting  the  army  into  parties,  which  would  have  been  the 
case  had  the  intended  motion  gone  on." — Paine's  Letter  iii  to  the  People  of 
the  United  States  (1802). 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


personal  relations  between  the  two  had  been  even 
affectionate.  We  find  Paine  consulting  him  about 
his  projected  publications  at  little  oyster  suppers 
in  his  own  room  ;  and  Washington  giving  him  one 
of  his  two  overcoats,  when  Paine's  had  been 
stolen.  Such  incidents  imply  many  others  never 
made  known  ;  but  they  are  represented  in  a 
terrible  epigram  found  among  Paine's  papers, — 
"  Advice  to  the  statuary  who  is  to  execute  the 
statue  of  Washington. 

"  Take  from  the  mine  the  coldest,  hardest  stone, 
It  needs  no  fashion  :  it  is  Washington. 
But  if  you  chisel,  let  the  stroke  be  rude, 
And  on  his  heart  engrave — Ingratitude." 

Paine  never  published  the  lines.  Washington 
being  dead,  old  memories  may  have  risen  to 
restrain  him ;  and  he  had  learned  more  of  the 
treacherous  influences  around  the  great  man 
which  had  poisoned  his  mind  towards  other  friends 
besides  himself.  For  his  pamphlet  he  had  no 
apology  to  make.  It  was  a  thing  inevitable,  vol- 
canic, and  belongs  to  the  history  of  a  period 
prolific  in  intrigues,  of  which  both  Washington 
and  Paine  were  victims. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


"THE  agp:  of  reason." 

The  reception  which  the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  met  is 
its  sufficient  justification.  The  chief  priests  and 
preachers  answered  it  with  personal  abuse  and 
slander,  revealing  by  such  fruits  the  nature  of  their 
tree,  and  confessing  the  feebleness  of  its  root, 
either  in  reason  or  human  affection. 

Lucian,  in  his  "  Zfu?  rpaycpdo?"  represents  the 
gods  as  invisibly  present  at  a  debate,  in  Athens, 
on  their  existence.  Damis,  who  argues  from  the 
evils  of  the  world  that  there  are  no  gods,  is 
answered  by  Timocles,  a  theological  professor  with 
large  salary.  The  gods  feel  doleful,  as  the  argu- 
ment goes  against  them,  until  their  champion 
breaks  out  against  Damis, — "  You  blasphemous 
villain,  you  !  Wretch  !  Accursed  monster  !  "  The 
chief  of  the  gods  takes  courage,  and  exclaims : 
"  Well  done,  Timocles !  give  him  hard  words. 
That  is  your  strong  point.  Begin  to  reason  and 
you  will  be  dumb  as  a  fish." 

So  was  it  in  the  age  when  the  Twilight  of  the 
Gods  was  brought  on  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  Man. 
Not  very  different  was  it  when  this  Son  of  Man, 
dehumanized  by  despotism,  made  to  wield  the 
thunderbolts  of  Jove,  reached  in  turn  his  inevitable 

i8i 


l82 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l794- 


Twilight.  The  man  who  pointed  out  the  now 
admitted  survivals  of  Paganism  in  the  despotic 
system  then  called  Christianity,  who  said,  "  the 
church  has  set  up  a  religion  of  pomp  and  revenue 
in  the  pretended  imitation  of  a  person  whose  life 
was  humility  and  poverty,"  was  denounced  as  a  sot 
and  an  adulterer.  These  accusations,  proved  in 
this  work  unquestionably  false,  have  accumulated 
for  generations,  so  that  a  mountain  of  prejudice 
must  be  tunnelled  before  any  reader  can  approach 
the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  as  the  work  of  an  honest  and 
devout  mind. 

It  is  only  to  irrelevant  personalities  that  allusion 
is  here  made.  Paine  was  vehement  in  his  arraign- 
ment of  Church  and  Priesthood,  and  it  was  fair 
enough  for  them  to  strike  back  with  animad- 
versions on  Deism  and  Infidelity.  But  it  was  no 
answer  to  an  argument  against  the  antiquity  of 
Genesis  to  call  Paine  a  drunkard,  had  it  been  true. 
This  kind  of  reply  was  heard  chiefly  in  America. 
In  England  it  was  easy  for  Paine's  chief  antagonist, 
the  Bishop  of  Llandaff,  to  rebuke  Paine's  strong 
language,  when  his  lordship  could  sit  serenely  in 
the  House  of  Peers  with  knowledge  that  his 
opponent  was  answered  with  handcuffs  for  every 
Englishman  who  sold  his  book.  But  in  America, 
slander  had  to  take  the  place  of  handcuffs. 

Paine  is  at  times  too  harsh  and  militant.  But  in 
no  case  does  he  attack  any  person's  character. 
Nor  is  there  anything  in  his  language,  wherever 
objectionable,  which  I  have  heard  censured  when 
uttered  on  the  side  of  orthodoxy.  It  is  easily 
forgfotten  that  Luther  desired  the  execution  of  a 


1795]  ''THE  AGE  OF  REASON."  183 

rationalist,  and  that  Calvin  did  burn  a  Socinian. 
The  furious  language  of  Protestants  against  Rome, 
and  of  Presbyterians  against  the  English  Church, 
is  considered  even  heroic,  like  the  invective 
ascribed  to  Christ,  "  Generation  of  vipers,  how  can 
you  escape  the  damnation  of  hell!"  Although 
vehement  language  grates  on  the  ear  of  an  age 
that  understands  the  real  forces  of  evolution,  the 
historic  sense  remembers  that  moral  revolutions 
have  been  made  with  words  hard  as  cannon-balls. 
It  was  only  when  soft  phrases  about  the  evil  of 
slavery,  which  "  would  pass  away  in  God's  good 
time,"  made  way  for  the  abolitionist  denunciation 
of  the  Constitution  as  "  an  agreement  with  hell," 
that  the  fortress  began  to  fall.  In  other  words, 
reforms  are  wrought  by  those  who  are  in  earnest.^ 
It  is  difficult  in  our  time  to  place  one's  self  in  the 
situation  of  a  heretic  of  Paine's  time.  Darwin, 
who  is  buried  in  Westminster,  remembered  the 
imprisonment  of  some  educated  men  for  opinions 
far  less  heretical  than  his  own.  George  III. 
egoistic  insanity  appears  ((1892)  to  have  been  in- 
herited by  an  imperial  descendant,  and  should 
Germans  be  presently  punished  for  their  religion, 
as  Paine's  early  followers  were  in  England,  we 
shall  again  hear  those  words  that  are  the  "  half- 
battles  "  preceding  victories. 

There  is  even  greater  difficulty  in  the  apprecia- 
tion by  one  generation  of  the  inner  sense  of  the 

'  "In  writing  upon  this,  as  upon  every  other  subject,  I  speak  a  language 
plain  and  intelligible.  I  deal  not  in  hints  and  intimations.  I  have  several 
reasons  for  this  :  first,  that  I  may  be  clearly  understood  ;  secondly,  that  it 
may  be  seen  I  am  in  earnest  ;  and  thirdly,  because  it  is  an  affront  to  truth 
to  treat  falsehood  with  complaisance." — Paine's  reply  to  Bishop  Watson. 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1794- 


language  of  a  past  one.  The  common  notion  that 
Paine's  "Age  of  Reason"  abounds  in  "  vulgarity"  is 
due  to  the  lack  of  literary  culture  in  those — probably 
few — who  have  derived  that  impression  from  its 
perusal.  It  is  the  fate  of  all  genius  potent  enough 
to  survive  a  century  that  its  language  will  here  and 
there  seem  coarse.  The  thoughts  of  Boccaccio, 
Rabelais,  Shakespeare, — whose  works  are  com- 
monly expurgated, — are  so  modern  that  they  are 
not  generally  granted  the  allowances  conceded  to 
writers  whose  ideas  are  as  antiquated  as  their 
words.  Only  the  instructed  minds  can  set  their 
classic  nudities  in  the  historic  perspective  that 
reveals  their  innocency  and  value.  Paine's  book 
has  done  as  much  to  modify  human  belief  as  any 
ever  written.  It  is  one  of  the  very  few  religious 
works  of  the  last  century  which  survives  in  unsec- 
tarian  circulation.  It  requires  a  scholarly  percep- 
tion to  recognize  in  its  occasional  expressions,  by 
some  called  "  coarse,"  the  simple  Saxon  of  Nor- 
folkshire.  Similar  expressions  abound  in  pious 
books  of  the  time  ;  they  are  not  censured,  because 
they  are  not  read.  His  refined  contemporary 
antagonists — Dr.  Watson  and  Dr.  Priestley — 
found  no  fault  with  Paine's  words,  though  the  for- 
mer twice  accuses  his  assertions  as  "indecent."  In 
both  cases,  however,  Paine  is  pointing  out  some  bib- 
lical triviality  or  indecency — or  what  he  conceived 
such.  I  have  before  me  origfinal  editions  of  both 
Parts  of  the  "Age  of  Reason  "  printed  from  Paine's 
manuscripts.  Part  First  may  be  read  by  the  most 
prudish  parent  to  a  daughter,  without  an  omission. 
In  Part  Second  six  or  seven  sentences  might  be 


1795] 


'THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


185 


omitted  by  the  parent,  where  the  writer  deals, 
without  the  least  prurience,  with  biblical  narratives 
that  can  hardly  be  daintily  touched.  Paine  would 
have  been  astounded  at  the  suggestion  of  any  im- 
propriety in  his  expressions.  He  passes  over  four- 
fifths  of  the  passages  in  the  Bible  whose  grossness 
he  might  have  cited  in  support  of  his  objection  to 
its  immorality.  "  Obscenity,"  he  says,  "  in  matters 
of  faith,  however  wrapped  up,  is  always  a  token 
of  fable  and  imposture  ;  for  it  is  necessary  to  our 
serious  belief  in  God  that  we  do  not  connect  it  with 
stories  that  run,  as  this  does,  into  ludicrous  inter- 
pretations. The  story  [of  the  miraculous  concep- 
tion] is,  upon  the  face  of  it,  the  same  kind  of  story 
as  that  of  Jupiter  and  Leda." 

Another  fostered  prejudice  supposes  "The  Age  of 
Reason"  largely  made  up  of  scoffs.  The  Bishop  of 
Llandaff,  in  his  reply  to  Paine,  was  impressed  by 
the  elevated  Theism  of  the  work,  to  portions  of 
which  he  ascpbed  "a  philosophical  sublimity."^ 
Watson  apparWtly  tried  to  constrain  his  ecclesi- 
astical position  into  English  fair  play,  so  that 
his  actual  failures  to  do  so  were  especially  mis- 
leading, as  many  knew  Paine  only  as  represented  by 
this  eminent  antagonist.  For  instance,  the  Bishop 
says,  "  Moses  you  term  a  coxcomb,  etc."  But 
Paine,  commenting  on  Numbers  xii.,  3,  "  Moses 
was  very  meek,  above  all  men,"  had  argued  that 
Moses  could  not  have  written  the  book,  for  "  If 
Moses  said  this  of  himself  he  was  a  coxcomb." 
Again  the  Bishop  says  Paine  terms  Paul  "  a  fool." 
But  Paine  had  quoted  from  Paul,  "  '  Thou  fool,  that 

'  "An  Apology  for  the  Bible.    By  R.  Llandaff  "  [Dr.  Richard  Watson]. 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PA  IKE.  [i794- 


which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened  except  it  die.' 
To  which  [he  says]  one  might  reply  in  his  own 
language,  and  say,  '  Thou  fool,  Paul,  that  which 
thou  sowest  is  not  quickened  except  it  die  not.'  " 

No  intellect  that  knows  the  law  of  literature, 
that  deep  answers  only  \mto  deep,  can  suppose  that 
the  effect  of  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason,"  on  which 
book  the  thirty  years'  war  for  religious  freedom 
in  England  was  won,  after  many  martyrdoms,  came 
from  a  scoffing  or  scurrilous  work.  It  is  never 
Paine's  object  to  raise  a  laugh  ;  if  he  does  so  it  is 
because  of  the  miserable  baldness  of  the  dogmas, 
and  the  ignorant  literalism,  consecrated  in  the 
popular  mind  of  his  time.  Through  page  after  page 
he  peruses  the  Heavens,  to  him  silently  declaring 
the  glory  of  God,  and  it  is  not  laughter  but  awe 
when  he  asks,  "  From  whence  then  could  arise  the 
solitary  and  strange  conceit,  that  the  Almighty, 
who  had  millions  of  worlds  equally  dependent  on 
his  protection,  should  quit  the  care  of  all  the  rest, 
and  come  to  die  in  our  world,  because,  they  say, 
one  man  and  one  woman  had  eaten  an  apple  ! " 

In  another  work  Paine  finds  allegorical  truth  in 
the  legend  of  Eden.  The  comparative  mytholo- 
gists  of  to-day,  with  many  sacred  books  of  the 
East,  can  find  mystical  meaning  and  beauty  in 
many  legends  of  the  Bible  wherein  Paine  could  see 
none,  but  it  is  because  of  their  liberation  by  the 
rebels  of  last  century  from  bondage  to  the  petti- 
ness of  literalism.  Paine  sometimes  exposes  an 
absurdity  with  a  taste  easily  questionable  by  a 
generation  not  required  like  his  own  to  take  such 
things  under  foot  of  the  letter.    But  his  spirit  is 


"THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


187 


never  flippant,  and  the  sentences  that  might  so 
seem  to  a  casual  reader  are  such  as  Browning 
defended  in  his  "  Christmas  Eve." 

"If  any  blames  me, 
Thinking  that  merely  to  touch  in  brevity 
The  topics  I  dwell  on,  were  unlawful — 
Or,  worse,  that  I  trench,  with  undue  levity, 
On  the  bounds  of  the  Holy  and  the  awful, 
I  praise  the  heart,  and  pity  the  head  of  him, 
And  refer  myself  to  Thee,  instead  of  him  ; 
Who  head  and  heart  alike  discernest. 
Looking  below  light  speech  we  utter, 
When  the  frothy  spume  and  frequent  sputter 
Prove  that  the  soul's  depths  boil  in  earnest  !  " 

Even  Dr.  James  Martineau,  whose  reverential 
spirit  no  one  can  question,  once  raised  a  smile  in 
his  audience,  of  which  the  present  writer  was  one, 
by  saying  that  the  account  of  the  temptation  of 
Jesus,  if  true,  must  have  been  reported  by 
himself,  or  "  by  the  only  other  party  present." 
Any  allusion  to  the  devil  in  our  day  excites  a  smile. 
But  it  was  not  so  in  Paine's  day,  when  many 
crossed  themselves  while  speaking  of  this  dark 
prince.  Paine  has  "  too  much  respect  for  the  moral 
character  of  Christ "  to  suppose  that  he  told  the 
story  of  the  devil  showing  him  all  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world.  "  How  happened  it  that  he  did  not 
discover  America  ;  or  is  it  only  with  kmgdoms  that 
his  sooty  highness  has  any  interest?"  This  is  not 
flippancy  ;  it  was  by  following  the  inkstand  Luther 
threw  at  the  devil  with  equally  vigorous  humor 
that  the  grotesque  figure  was  eliminated,  leaving 
the  reader  of  to-day  free  to  appreciate  the  pro- 
found significance  of  the  Temptation. 


1 88  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1794- 


How  free  Paine  is  from  any  disposition  to  play 
to  pit  or  gallery,  any  more  than  to  dress  circle,  is 
shown  in  his  treatment  of  the  Book  of  Jonah.  It 
is  not  easy  to  tell  the  story  without  exciting  laugh- 
ter ;  indeed  the  proverbial  phrases  for  exaggeration, 
— "a  whale,"  a  "fish  story," — probably  came  from 
Jonah.  Paine's  smile  is  slight.  He  says,  "  it 
would  have  approached  nearer  to  the  idea  of  a 
miracle  if  Jonah  had  swallowed  the  whale";  but 
this  is  merely  in  passing  to  an  argument  that  mir- 
acles, in  the  early  world,  would  hardly  have  repre- 
sented Divinity.  Had  the  fish  cast  up  Jonah  in  the 
streets  of  Nineveh  the  people  would  probably  have 
been  affrighted,  and  fancied  them  both  devils. 
But  in  the  second  Part  of  the  work  there  is  a  very 
impressive  treatment  of  the  Book  of  Jonah.  This 
too  is  introduced  with  a  passing  smile — "  if  credu- 
lity could  swallow  Jonah  and  the  whale  it  could 
swallow  anything."  But  it  is  precisely  to  this  sup- 
posed "  scoffer  "  that  we  owe  the  first  interpretation 
of  the  profound  and  pathetic  significance  of  the 
book,  lost  sight  of  in  controversies  about  its 
miracle.  Paine  anticipates  Baur  in  pronouncing  it 
a  poetical  work  of  Gentile  origin.  He  finds  in  it 
the  same  lesson  against  intolerance  contained  in 
the  story  of  the  reproof  of  Abraham  for  piously 
driving  the  suffering  fire-worshipper  from  his  tent. 
(This  story  is  told  by  the  Persian  Saadi,  who  also 
refers  to  Jonah  :  "  And  now  the  whale  swallowed 
Jonah  :  the  sun  set.")  In  the  prophet  mourning  for 
his  withered  gourd,  while  desiring  the  destruction 
of  a  city,  Paine  finds  a  satire  ;  in  the  divine  rebuke 
he  hears  the  voice  of  a  true  God,  and  one  very 


1795]  "THE  AGE  OF  REASON."  189 

different  from  the  deity  to  whom  the  Jews  ascribed 
massacres.  The  same  critical  acumen  is  shown  in  his 
treatment  of  the  Book  of  Job,  which  he  beHeves 
to  be  also  of  Gentile  origin,  and  much  admires. 

The  large  Paine  Mythology  cleared  aside,  he 
who  would  learn  the  truth  about  this  religious 
teacher  will  find  in  his  way  a  misleading  literature 
of  .uncritical  eulogies.  Indeed  the  pious  prejudices 
against  Paine  have  largely  disappeared,  as  one  may 
see  by  comparing  the  earlier  with  the  later  notices 
of  him  in  religious  encyclopaedias.  But  though  he 
is  no  longer  placed  in  an  infernal  triad  as  in  the 
old  hymn — "  The  world,  the  devil,  and  Tom 
Paine" — and  his  political  services  are  now  candidly 
recognized,  he  is  still  regarded  as  the  propagandist 
of  a  bald  illiterate  deism.  This,  which  is  absurdly 
unhistorical,  Paine  having  been  dealt  with  by 
eminent  critics  of  his  time  as  an  influence  among 
the  educated,  is  a  sequel  to  his  long  persecution. 
For  he  was  relegated  to  the  guardianship  of  an  un- 
learned and  undiscriminating  radicalism,  little  able 
to  appreciate  the  niceties  of  his  definitions,  and  was 
gilded  by  its  defensive  commonplaces  into  a  figure- 
head. Paine  therefore  has  now  to  be  saved  from 
his  friends  more  perhaps  than  from  his  enemies.  It 
has  been  shown  on  a  former  page  that  his  govern- 
mental theories  were  of  a  type  peculiar  in  his  time. 
Though  such  writers  as  Spencer,  Frederic  Harri- 
son, Bagehot,  and  Dicey  have  familiarized  us  with 
his  ideas,  few  of  them  have  the  historic  perception 
which  enables  Sir  George  Trevelyan  to  recognize 
Paine's  connection  with  them.  It  must  now  be 
added  that  Paine's  religion  was  of  a  still  more 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794- 


peculiar  type.  He  cannot  be  classed  with  deists  of 
the  past  or  theists  of  the  present.  Instead  of  being^ 
the  mere  iconoclast,  the  militant  assailant  of  Chris- 
tian beliefs,  the  "  infidel  "  of  pious  slang,  which  even 
men  who  should  know  better  suppose,  he  was  an 
exact  thinker,  a  slow  and  careful  writer,  and  his 
religious  ideas,  developed  through  long  years,  re- 
quire and  repay  study. 

The  dedication  of  "  The  Age  of  Reason  "  places 
the  work  under  the  "protection"  of  its  author's 
fellow-citizens  of  the  United  States.  To-day  the 
trust  comes  to  many  who  really  are  such  as  Paine 
supposed  all  of  his  countrymen  to  be, — just  and 
independent  lovers  of  truth  and  right.  We  shall 
see  that  his  trust  was  not  left  altogether  unfulfilled 
by  a  multitude  of  his  contemporaries,  though  they 
did  not  venture  to  do  justice  to  the  man.  Paine 
had  idealized  his  countrymen,  looking  from  his 
prison  across  three  thousand  miles.  But,  to  that 
vista  of  space,  a  century  of  time  had  to  be  added 
before  the  book  which  fanatical  Couthon  sup- 
pressed, and  the  man  whom  murderous  Barrere 
sentenced  to  death,  could  both  be  fairly  judged  by 
educated  America. 

"  The  Age  of  Reason  "  is  in  two  Parts,  published 
in  successive  years.  These  divisions  are  interest- 
ing as  memorials  of  the  circumstances  under  which 
they  were  written  and  published, — in  both  cases 
with  death  evidently  at  hand.  But  taking  the  two 
Parts  as  one  work,  there  appears  to  my  own  mind  a 
more  real  division  :  a  part  written  by  Paine's  cen- 
tury, and  another  originating  from  himself.  Each 
of  these  has  an  important  and  traceable  evolution. 


1795]  "THE  AGE  OF  REASON."  I9I 

I.  The  first  of  these  divisions  may  be  considered, 
fundamentally,  as  a  continuation  of  the  old  revolu- 
tion against  arbitrary  authority.  Carlyle's  humor 
covers  a  profound  insight  when  he  remarks  that 
Paine,  having  freed  America  with  his  "  Common 
Sense,"  was  resolved  to  free  this  whole  world,  and 
perhaps  the  other  !  All  the  authorities  were  and  are 
interdependent.  "  If  thou  release  this  man  thou  art 
not  Caesar's  friend,"  cried  the  Priest  to  Pilate.  The 
proconsul  must  face  the  fact  that  in  Judea  Caesar- 
ism  rests  on  the  same  foundation  with  Jahvism, 
Authority  leans  on  authority ;  none  can  stand 
alone.  It  is  still  a  question  whether  political  revo- 
lutions cause  or  are  caused  by  religious  revolutions. 
Buckle  maintained  that  the  French  Revolution  was 
chiefly  due  to  the  previous  overthrow  of  spiritual 
authority  ;  Rocquain,  that  the  political  regime  was 
shaken  before  the  philosophers  arose.'  In  England 
religious  changes  seem  to  have  usually  followed 
those  of  a  political  character,  not  only  in  order  of 
time,  but  in  character.  In  beginning  the  "Age  of 
Reason,"  Paine  says  : 

"  Soon  after  I  had  published  the  pamphlet  '  Common  Sense ' 
in  America  I  saw  the  exceeding  probability  that  a  revolution  in 
the  system  of  government  would  be  followed  by  a  revolution  in 
the  system  of  religion.  The  adulterous  connection  of  church 
and  state,  wherever  it  had  taken  place,  whether  Jewish, 
Christian,  or  Turkish,  had  so  effectually  prohibited  by  pains 
and  penalties  every  discussion  upon  established  creeds,  and 
upon  first  principles  of  religion,  that  until  the  system  of  gov- 
ernment should  be  changed   those  subjects  could  not  be 

'  Felix  Rocquain's  fine  work,  "  L'Esprit  revolutionnaire  avant  la  Revolu- 
tion," though  not  speculative,  illustrates  the  practical  nature  of  revolution, 
— an  uncivilized  and  often  retrograde  form  of  evolution. 


192 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1794- 


brought  fairly  and  openly  before  the  world  ;  but  that  whenever 
this  should  be  done  a  revolution  in  the  system  of  religion 
would  follow.  Human  inventions  and  priestcraft  would  be 
detected  ;  and  man  would  return  to  the  pure,  unmixed,  and 
unadulterated  belief  of  one  God  and  no  more." 

The  historical  continuity  of  the  critical  negations 
of  Paine  with  the  past  is  represented  in  his  title. 
The  Revolution  of  1688, — the  secular  arm  transfer- 
ring the  throne  from  one  family  to  another, — 
brought  the  monarchical  superstition  into  doubt ; 
straightway  the  Christian  authority  was  shaken. 
One  hundred  years  before  Paine's  book,  appeared 
Charles  Blount's  "  Oracles  of  Reason,"  Macaulay 
describes  Blount  as  the  head  of  a  small  school  of 
"  infidels,"  troubled  with  a  desire  to  make  converts  ; 
his  delight  was  to  worry  the  priests  by  asking  them 
how  light  existed  before  the  sun  was  made,  and 
where  Eve  found  thread  to  stitch  her  fig-leaves.  But 
to  this  same  Blount,  Macaulay  is  constrained  to 
attribute  emanicipation  of  the  press  in  England, 

Blount's  title  was  taken  up  in  America  by  Ethan 
Allen,  leader  of  the  "  Green  Mountain  Boys." 
Allen's  "  Oracles  of  Reason  "  is  forgotten  ;  he  is 
remembered  by  his  demand  (1775)  for  the  surren- 
der of  Fort  Ticonderoga,  "  in  the  name  of  Jehovah 
and  the  Continental  Congress."  The  last  five 
words  of  this  famous  demand  would  have  been  a 
better  title  for  the  book.  It  introduces  the  nation 
to  a  Jehovah  qualified  by  the  Continental  Congress. 
Ethan  Allen's  deity  is  no  longer  a  King  of  kings : 
arbitrariness  has  disappeared  ;  men  are  summoned 
to  belief  in  a  governor  administering  laws  inherent 
in  the  constitution  of  a  universe  co-eternal  with 


"  THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


himself,  and  with  which  he  is  interdependent.  His 
administration  is  not  for  any  divine  glory,  but,  in 
anticipation  of  our  constitutional  preamble,  to 
"  promote  the  general  welfare."  The  old  Puritan 
alteration  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  "Thy  Common- 
wealth come  !"  would  in  Allen's  church  have  been 
"  Thy  Republic  come  !  "  That  is,  had  he  admitted 
prayer,  which  to  an  Executive  is  of  course  out  of 
place.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that 
Ethan  Allen  is  conscious  that  his  system  is  inspired 
by  the  Revolution.  His  book  is  a  calm,  philosophi- 
cal analysis  of  New  England  theology  and  meta- 
physics ;  an  attempt  to  clear  away  the  ancient  bibli- 
cal science  and  set  Newtonian  science  in  its  place ; 
to  found  what  he  conceives  "  Natural  Religion." 

In  editing  his  "Account  of  Arnold's  Campaign 
in  Quebec,"  John  Joseph  Henry  says  in  a  footnote 
that  Paine  borrowed  from  Allen.  But  the  aofed 
man  was,  in  his  horror  of  Paine's  religion,  betrayed 
by  his  memory.  The  only  connection  between  the 
books  runs  above  the  consciousness  of  either  writer. 
There  was  necessarily  some  resemblance  between 
negations  dealing  with  the  same  narratives,  but  a 
careful  comparison  of  the  books  leaves  me  doubt- 
ful whether  Paine  ever  read  Allen.  His  title  may 
have  been  suggested  by  Blount,  whose  "  Oracles  of 
Reason  "  was  in  the  library  of  his  assistant  at  Bor- 
dentown,  John  Hall.  The  works  are  distinct  in 
aim,  products  of  different  religious  climes.  Allen 
is  occupied  mainly  with  the  metaphysical,  Paine 
with  quite  other,  aspects  of  their  common  subject. 
There  is  indeed  a  conscientious  originality  in  the 
freethinkers  who  successively  availed  themselves 


194 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1794- 


of  the  era  of  liberty  secured  by  Blount.  Collins,  Dol- 
ingbroke,  Hume,  Toland,  Chubb,  Woolston,  Tindal, 
Middleton,  Annet,  Gibbon, — each  made  an  examin- 
ation for  himself,  and  represents  a  distinct  chap- 
ter in  the  religious  history  of  England.  Annet's 
"  Free  Inquirer,"  aimed  at  enlightenment  of  the  low- 
er classes,  proved  that  free  thought  was  tolerated 
only  as  an  aristocratic  privilege  ;  the  author  was 
pilloried,  just  thirty  years  before  the  cheapening  of 
the  "  Rights  of  Man  "  led  to  Paine's  prosecution. 
Probably  Morgan  did  more  than  any  of  the  deists 
to  prepare  English  ground  for  Paine's  sowing,  by 
severely  criticising  the  Bible  by  a  standard  of  civil- 
ized ethics,  so  far  as  ethics  were  civilized  in  the 
early  eighteenth  century.  But  none  of  these  writ- 
ers touched  the  deep  chord  of  religious  feeling  in 
the  people.  The  English-speaking  people  were 
timid  about  venturing  too  much  on  questions  which 
divided  the  learned,  and  were  content  to  express 
their  protest  against  the  worldliness  of  the  Church, 
and  faithlessness  to  the  lowly  Saviour,  by  following 
pietists  and  enthusiasts.  The  learned  clergy,  gen- 
erally of  the  wealthy  classes,  were  largely  deistical, 
but  conservative.  They  gradually  perceived  that 
the  political  and  the  theological  authority  rested  on 
the  same  foundation.  So  between  the  deists  and 
the  Christians  there  was,  as  Leslie  Stephen  says, 
a  "  comfortable  compromise,  which  held  together 
till  Wesley  from  one  side,  and  Thomas  Paine  from 
another,  forced  more  serious  thoughts  on  the  age."  ^ 
While  "  The  Age  of  Reason "  is  thus,  in  one 
aspect,  the  product  of  its  time,  the  renewal  of  an 

*  "  History  of  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century." 


17951  "THE  AGE  OF  reason:'  1 95 

old  siege — begun  far  back  indeed  as  Celsus, — its 
intellectual  originality  is  none  the  less  remarkable. 
Paine  is  more  complete  master  of  the  comparative 
method  than  Tindal  in  his  "Christianity  as  old  as 
the  Creation."  In  his  studies  of  "Christian  My- 
thology "  (his  phrase),  one  is  surprised  by  anticipa- 
tions of  Baur  and  Strauss,  These  are  all  the  more 
striking  by  reason  of  his  homely  illustrations.  Thus, 
in  discussing  the  liabilities  of  ancient  manuscripts 
to  manipulation,  he  mentions  in  his  second  Part 
that  in  the  first,  printed  less  than  two  years  before, 
there  was  already  a  sentence  he  never  wrote  ;  and 
contrasts  this  with  the  book  of  nature  wherein  no 
blade  of  grass  can  be  imitated  or  altered.'  He  dis- 
tinguishes the  historical  Jesus  from  the  mythical 
Christ  with  nicety,  though  none  had  previously  done 
this.  He  is  more  discriminating  than  the  early 
deists  in  his  explanations  of  the  scriptural  marvels 
which  he  discredits.  There  was  not  the  invariable 
alternative  of  imposture  with  which  the  orthodoxy 
of  his  time  had  been  accustomed  to  deal.  He  does 
indeed  suspect  Moses  with  his  rod  of  conjuring,  and 
thinks  no  better  of  those  who  pretended  knowledge 
of  future  events  ;  but  the  incredible  narratives  are 
traditions,  fables,  and  occasionally  "  downright  lies." 

'  The  sentence  imported  into  Paine's  Part  First  is  :  "  The  book  of  Luke 
was  carried  by  one  voice  only."  I  find  the  words  added  as  a  footnote  in  the 
Philadelphia  edition,  1794,  p.  33.  While  Paine  in  Paris  was  utilizing  the 
ascent  of  the  footnote  to  his  text,  Dr.  Priestley  in  Pennsylvania  was  using  it 
to  show  Paine's  untrustworthiness.  ("Letters  to  a  Philosophical  Unbe- 
liever," p.  73.)  But  it  would  appear,  though  neither  discovered  it,  that 
Paine's  critic  was  the  real  offender.  In  quoting  the  page,  before  answering 
it,  Priestley  incorporated  in  the  text  the  footnote  of  an  American  editor. 
Priestley  could  not  of  course  imagine  such  editorial  folly,  but  all  the  same 
the  reader  may  here  see  the  myth-insect  already  building  the  Paine  My- 
thology. 


196 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAI.VE.  [1794- 


"  It  is  not  difficult  to  discover  the  progress  by  which 
even  simple  supposition,  with  the  aid  of  credulity, 
will  in  time  grow  into  a  lie,  and  at  last  be  told  as  a 
fact ;  and  wherever  we  can  find  a  charitable  reason 
for  a  thing  of  this  kind  we  ought  not  to  indulge  a 
severe  one."  Paine's  use  of  the  word  "  lies  "  in  this 
connection  is  an  archaism.  Carlyle  told  me  that 
his  father  always  spoke  of  such  tales  as  "  The  Ara- 
bian Nights"  as  "  downright  lies  "  ;  by  which  he 
no  doubt  meant  fables  without  any  indication  of 
being  such,  and  without  any  moral.  Elsewhere 
Paine  uses  "  lie  "  as  synonymous  with  "  fabulous  "  ; 
when  he  means  by  the  word  what  it  would  now  im- 
ply, "wilful  "  is  prefixed.  In  the  Gospels  he  finds 
"  inventions  "  of  Christian  Mythologists — tales 
founded  on  vague  rumors,  relics  of  primitive  works 
of  imagination  mistaken  for  history, — fathered 
upon  disciples  who  did  not  write  them. 

His  treatment  of  the  narrative  of  Christ's  resur- 
rection may  be  selected  as  an  example  of  his 
method.  He  rejects  Paul's  testimony,  and  his  five 
hundred  witnesses  to  Christ's  reappearance,  because 
the  evidence  did  not  convince  Paul  himself,  until 
he  was  struck  by  lightning,  or  otherwise  converted. 
He  finds  disagreements  in  the  narratives  of  the 
gospels,  concerning  the  resurrection,  which,  while 
proving  there  was  no  concerted  imposture,  show 
that  the  accounts  were  not  written  by  witnesses  of 
the  events  ;  for  in  this  case  they  would  agree  more 
nearly.  He  finds  in  the  narratives  of  Christ's  re- 
appearances,— "  suddenly  coming  in  and  going  out 
when  doors  are  shut,  vanishing  out  of  sight  and 
appearing  again," — and  the  lack  of  details,  as  to  his 


"THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


197 


dress,  etc.,  the  familiar  signs  of  a  ghost-story,  which 
is  apt  to  be  told  in  different  ways.  "  Stories  of 
this  kind  had  been  told  of  the  assassination  of  Julius 
Czesar,  not  many  years  before,  and  they  generally 
have  their  origin  in  violent  deaths,  or  in  the  exe- 
cution of  innocent  persons.  In  cases  of  this  kind 
compassion  lends  its  aid,  and  benevolently  stretches 
the  story.  It  goes  on  a  little  and  a  little  fur- 
ther, till  it  becomes  a  most  certain  truth.  Once 
start  a  ghost,  and  credulity  fills  up  its  life  and  as- 
signs the  cause  of  its  appearance."  The  moral 
and  religious  importance  of  the  resurrection  would 
thus  be  an  afterthought.  The  secrecy  and  privacy 
of  the  alleged  appearances  of  Christ  after  death 
are,  he  remarks,  repugnant  to  the  supposed  end  of 
convincing  the  world.^ 

Paine  admits  the  power  of  the  deity  to  make  a 
revelation.  He  therefore  deals  with  each  of  the 
more  notable  miracles  on  its  own  evidence,  adher- 
ing to  his  plan  of  bringing  the  Bible  to  judge  the 
Bible.  Such  an  investigation,  written  with  lucid 
style  and  quaint  illustration,  without  one  timid  or  un- 
candid  sentence,  comingf  from  a  man  whose  services 
and  sacrifices  for  humanity  were  great,  could  not 
have  failed  to  give  the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  long  life, 
even  had  these  been  its  only  qualities.    Four  years 

'  In  1778  Lessing  set  forth  his  "  New  Hypothesis  of  the  Evangelists,"  that 
they  had  independently  built  on  a  basis  derived  from  some  earlier  Gospel  of 
the  Hebrews, — a  theory  now  confirmed  by  the  recovered  fragments  of  that 
lost  Memoir,  collected  by  Dr.  Nicholson  of  the  Bodleian  Library.  It  is 
tolerably  certain  that  Paine  was  unacquainted  with  Lessing's  work,  when  he 
became  convinced,  by  variations  in  the  accounts  of  the  resurrection,  that 
some  earlier  narrative  ' '  became  afterwards  the  foundation  of  the  four  books 
ascribed  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John," — these  being,  traditionally, 
eye-witnesses. 


198 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1794- 


before  the  book  appeared,  Burke  said  in  Parlia- 
ment :  "  Who,  born  within  the  last  forty  years,  has 
read  one  word  of  Collins,  and  Toland,  and  Tindal, 
and  Chubb,  and  Morgan,  and  the  whole  race  who 
call  themselves  freethinkers?"  Paine  was,  in  one 
sense,  of  this  intellectual  pedigree ;  and  had  his 
book  been  only  a  digest  and  expansion  of  previous 
negative  criticisms,  and  a  more  thorough  restate- 
ment of  theism,  these  could  have  given  it  but  a 
somewhat  longer  life  ;  the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  must 
have  swelled  Burke's  list  of  forgotten  freethinking 
books.  But  there  was  an  immortal  soul  in  Paine's 
book.  It  is  to  the  consideration  of  this  its  unique 
life,  which  has  defied  the  darts  of  criticism  for  a 
century,  and  survived  its  own  faults  and  limitations, 
that  we  now  turn. 

II.  Paine's  book  is  the  uprising  of  the  human 
HEART  against  the  Religion  of  Inhumanity. 

This  assertion  may  be  met  with  a  chorus  of 
denials  that  there  was,  or  is,  in  Christendom  any 
Religion  of  Inhumanity.  And,  if  Thomas  Paine 
is  enjoying  the  existence  for  which  he  hoped,  no 
heavenly  anthem  would  be  such  music  in  his  ears 
as  a  chorus  of  stormiest  denials  from  earth  report- 
ing that  the  Religion  of  Inhumanity  is  so  extinct 
as  to  be  incredible.  Nevertheless,  the  Religion  of 
Inhumanity  did  exist,  and  it  defended  against 
Paine  a  god  of  battles,  of  pomp,  of  wrath  ; 
an  instigator  of  race  hatreds  and  exterminations  ; 
an  establisher  of  slavery  ;  a  commander  of 
massacres  in  punishment  of  theological  beliefs  ; 
a  sender  of  lying  spirits  to  deceive  men,  and  of 
destroying  angels  to  afiflict  them  with  plagues ; 


17951 


"THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


199 


^  creator  of  millions  of  human  beings  under  a 
Certainty  of  their  eternal  torture  by  devils  and  fires 
of  his  own  creation.  This  apotheosis  of  Inhumanity 
is  here  called  a  religion,  because  it  managed  to 
survive  from  the  ages  of  savagery  by  violence  of 
superstition,  to  gain  a  throne  in  the  Bible  by 
killing  off  all  who  did  not  accept  its  authority 
to  the  letter,  and  because  it  was  represented  by 
actual  inhumanities.  The  great  obstruction  of 
Science  and  Civilization  was  that  the  Bible  was 
quoted  in  sanction  of  war,  crusades  against  alien 
religions,  murders  for  witchcraft,  divine  right  of 
despots,  degradation  of  reason,  exaltation  of 
credulity,  punishment  of  opinion  and  unbiblical 
discovery,  contempt  of  human  virtues  and  human 
nature,  and  costly  ceremonies  before  an  invisible 
majesty,  which,  exacted  from  the  means  of  the 
people,  were  virtually  the  offering  of  human  sacri- 
fices. 

There  had  been  murmurs  against  this  consecrated 
Inhumanity  through  the  ages,  dissentients  here 
and  there  ;  but  the  Revolution  began  with  Paine. 
Nor  was  this  accidental.  He  was  just  the  one  man 
in  the  world  who  had  undergone  the  training 
necessary  for  this  particular  work. 

The  higher  clergy,  occupied  with  the  old  textual 
controversy,  proudly  instructing  Paine  in  Hebrew 
or  Greek  idioms,  little  realized  their  ignorance  in 
the  matter  now  at  issue.  Their  ignorance  had 
been  too  carefully  educated  to  even  imagine  the 
University  in  which  words  are  things,  and  things 
the  word,  and  the  many  graduations  passed 
between  Thetford  Quaker  meeting  and  the  French 


200 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1794- 


Convention,  What  to  scholastics,  for  whom 
humanities  meant  ancient  classics,  were  the 
murders  and  massacres  of  primitive  tribes,  declared 
to  be  the  word  and  work  of  God  ?  Words,  mere 
words.  They  never  saw  these  things.  But  Paine 
had  seen  that  war-god  at  his  work.  In  childhood 
he  had  seen  the  hosts  of  the  Defender  of  the  Faith 
as,  dripping  with  the  blood  of  Culloden  and  In- 
verness, they  marched  through  Thetford  ;  in  man- 
hood he  had  seen  the  desolations  wrought  "  by  the 
grace  of "  that  deity  to  the  royal  invader  of 
America ;  he  had  seen  the  massacres  ascribed  to 
Jahve  repeated  in  France,  while  Robespierre  and 
Couthon  were  establishing  Vv^orship  of  an  infra- 
human  deity.  By  sorrow,  poverty,  wrong,  through 
long  years,  amid  revolutions  and  death-agonies, 
the  stay-maker's  needle  had  been  forged  into  a  pen 
of  ligrhtnincr.  No  Oxonian  conductor  could  avert 
that  stroke,  which  was  not  at  mere  irrationalities, 
but  at  a  huge  idol  worshipped  with  human  sacrifices. 

The  creation  of  the  heart  of  Paine,  historically 
traceable,  is  so  wonderful,  its  outcome  seems  so 
supernatural,  that  in  earlier  ages  he  might  have 
been  invested  with  fable,  like  some  Avatar.  Of 
some  such  man,  no  doubt,  the  Hindu  poets 
dreamed  in  their  picture  of  young  Arguna  (in  the 
Bhagavatgitd).  The  warrior,  borne  to  the  battle- 
field in  his  chariot,  finds  arrayed  against  him  his 
kinsmen,  friends,  preceptors.  He  bids  his 
charioteer  pause  ;  he  cannot  fight  those  he  loves. 
His  charioteer  turns  :  't  is  the  radiant  face  of  divine 
Chrishna,  his  Saviour  !  Even  He  has  led  him  to 
this  grievous  contention  with  kinsmen,  and  those 


17951 


THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


20 1 


Ijo  whose  welfare  he  was  devoted.  Chrishna  in- 
structs his  disciple  that  the  war  is  an  illusion  ;  it  is 
the  conflict  by  which,  from  age  to  age,  the  divine 
life  in  the  world  is  preserved.  "  This  imperishable 
devotion  I  declared  to  the  sun,  the  sun  delivered  it 
to  Manu,  Manu  to  Ikshdku  ;  handed  down  from 
one  to  another  it  was  studied  by  the  royal  sages. 
In  the  lapse  of  time  that  devotion  was  lost.  It  is 
even  the  same  discipline  which  I  this  day  com- 
municate to  thee,  for  thou  art  my  servant  and  my 
friend.  Both  thou  and  I  have  passed  through 
many  births.  Mine  are  known  to  me  ;  thou 
knowest  not  of  thine,  I  am  made  evident  by  my 
own  power  :  as  often  as  there  is  a  decline  of  virtue, 
and  an  insurrection  of  wrong  and  injustice  in  the 
world,  I  appear." 

Paine  could  not  indeed  know  his  former  births ; 
and,  indeed,  each  former  self  of  his — Wycliffe, 
Fox,  Roger  Williams — was  sectarianized  beyond 
recognition.  He  could  hardly  see  kinsmen  in 
the  Unitarians,  who  were  especially  eager  to  dis- 
own the  heretic  affiliated  on  them  by  opponents  ; 
nor  in  the  VVesleyans,  though  in  him  was  the  blood 
of  their  apostle,  who  declared  salvation  a  present 
life,  free  to  all.  In  a  profounder  sense,  Paine  was 
George  Fox.  Here  was  George  Fox  disowned, 
freed  from  his  accidents,  naturalized  in  the  earth 
and  humanized  in  the  world  of  men,  Paine  is  ex- 
plicable only  by  the  intensity  of  his  Quakerism, 
consuming  its  own  traditions  as  once  the  church's 
ceremonies  and  sacraments.  On  him,  in  Thetford 
meeting-house,  rolled  the  burden  of  that  Light  that 
enlighteneth   every  man,  effacing  distinctions  of 


202 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794- 


rank,  race,  sex,  making  all  equal,  clearing  away 
privilege,  whether  of  priest  or  mediator,  subject- 
ing all  scriptures  to  its  immediate  illumination. 

This  faith  was  a  fearful  heritage  to  carry,  even 
in  childhood,  away  from  the  Quaker  environment 
which,  by  mixture  with  modifying  "  survivals,"  in 
habit  and  doctrine,  cooled  the  fiery  gospel  for  the 
average  tongue.  The  intermarriage  of  Paine's 
father  with  a  family  in  the  English  Church  brought 
the  precocious  boy's  Light  into  early  conflict  with 
his  kindred,  his  little  lamp  being  still  fed  in  the 
meeting-house.  A  child  brought  up  without 
respect  for  the  conventional  symbols  of  religion,  or 
even  with  pious  antipathy  to  them,  is  as  if  born  with 
only  one  spiritual  skin  ;  he  will  bleed  at  a  touch. 

"  I  well  remember,  when  about  seven  or  eight  years  of  age, 
hearing  a  sermon  read  by  a  relation  of  mine,  who  was  a  great 
devotee  of  the  Church,  upon  the  subject  of  what  is  called 
redemptio}!.  by  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God.  After  the  sermon 
was  ended  I  went  into  the  garden,  and  as  I  was  going  down 
the  garden  steps,  (for  I  perfectly  remember  the  spot),  I  re- 
volted at  the  recollection  of  what  I  had  heard,  and  thought  to 
myself  that  it  was  making  God  Almighty  act  like  a  passionate 
man,  that  killed  his  son  when  he  could  not  revenge  himself  in 
any  other  way  ;  and,  as  I  was  sure  a  man  would  be  hanged 
that  did  such  a  thing,  I  could  not  see  for  what  purpose  they 
preached  such  sermons.  This  was  not  one  of  that  kind  of 
thoughts  that  had  anything  in  it  of  childish  levity  ;  it  was  to 
me  a  serious  reflection,  arising  from  the  idea  I  had,  that  God 
was  too  good  to  do  such  an  action,  and  also  too  almighty  to  be 
under  any  necessity  of  doing  it.  I  believe  in  the  same  manner 
at  this  moment  ;  and  I  moreover  believe  that  any  system  of 
religion  that  has  anything  in  it  which  shocks  the  mind  of  a 
child,  cannot  be  a  true  system." 

The  child  took  his  misgivings  out  into  the  garden  ; 
he  would  not  by  a  denial  shock  his  aunt  Cocke's 


1795] 


"r/z/t  AGE  OF  reason:' 


203 


fajth  as  his  own  had  been  shocked.  For  many 
years  he  remained  silent  in  his  inner  c^arden,  nor 
ever  was  drawn  out  of  it  until  he  found  the  abstract 
doorma  of  the  death  of  God's  Son  an  altar  for 
sacrificing  men,  whom  he  reverenced  as  all  God's 
sons.  What  he  used  to  preach  at  Dover  and 
Sandwich  cannot  now  be  known.  His  ignorance 
of  Greek  and  Latin,  the  scholastic  "  humanities," 
had  prevented  his  becoming  a  clergyman,  and 
introduced  him  to  humanities  of  another  kind.  His 
mission  was  then  among  the  poor  and  ignorant.^ 
Sixteen  years  later  he  is  in  Philadelphia,  attending 
the  English  Church,  in  which  he  had  been  con- 
firmed. There  were  many  deists  in  that  Church, 
whose  laws  then  as  now  were  sufficiently  liberal  to 
include  them.  In  his  "  Common  Sense "  (pub- 
lished January  10,  1776)  Paine  used  the  reproof  of 
Israel  (I.  Samuel)  for  desiring  a  King.  John 
Adams,  a  Unitarian  and  monarchist,  asked  him 
if  he  really  believed  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Paine  said  he  did  not,  and  intended  at 
a  later  period  to  publish  his  opinions  on  the  sub- 
ject. There  was  nothing  inconsistent  in  Paine's 
believing  that  a  passage  confirmed  by  his  own  Light 
was  a  divine  direction,  though  contained  in  a  book 
whose  alleged  inspiration  throughout  he  did  not 
accept.  Such  was  the  Quaker  principle.  Before 
that,  soon  after  his  arrival  in  the  country,  when  he 
found  African  Slavery  supported  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, Paine  had  repudiated  the  authority  of  that 
book  ;  he  declares  it  abolished  by  "  Gospel  light," 

'  "  Old  John  Berry,  the  late  Col.  Hay's  servant,  told  me  he  knew  Paine 
very  well  when  he  was  at  Dover — had  heard  him  preach  there — thought  him 
a  staymaker  by  trade." — W.  Weedon,  of  Glynde,  quoted  in  Notes  and 
^MdV  /Vj  (London),  December  29,  1866. 


204 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794- 


which  includes  man-stealing  among  the  greatest 
crimes.  When,  a  year  later,  on  the  eve  of  the 
Revolution,  he  writes  "Common  Sense,"  he  has 
another  word  to  say  about  religion,  and  it  is 
strictly  what  the  human  need  of  the  hour  demands. 
Whatever  his  disbeliefs,  he  could  never  .sacrifice 
human  welfare  to  them,  any  more  than  he  would 
suffer  dogmas  to  sacrifice  the  same.  It  would  have 
been  a  grievous  sacrifice  of  the  great  cause  of 
republican  independence,  consequently  of  religious 
liberty,  had  he  introduced  a  theological  controversy 
at  the  moment  when  it  was  of  vital  importance  that 
the  sects  should  rise  above  their  partition-walls  and 
unite  for  a  great  common  end.  The  Quakers, 
deistical  as  they  were,  preserved  religiously  the 
"  separatism  "  once  compulsory  ;  and  Paine  proved 
himself  the  truest  Friend  among  them  when  he  was 
"moved"  by  the  Spirit  of  Humanity,  for  him  at 
length  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  utter  (1776)  his  brave 
cheer  for  Catholicity. 

"  As  to  religion,  I  hold  it  to  be  the  indispensable  duty  of  all 
governments  to  protect  all  conscientious  professors  thereof,  and 
I  know  of  no  other  business  which  government  hath  to  do 
therewith.  Let  a  man  throw  aside  that  narrowness  of  soul,  that 
selfishness  of  principle,  which  the  niggards  of  all  professions  are 
so  unwilling  to  part  with,  and  he  will  be  at  once  delivered  of  his 
fears  on  that  head.  Suspicion  is  the  companion  of  mean  souls, 
and  the  bane  of  all  good  society.  For  myself,  I  fully  and  con- 
scientiously believe,  that  it  is  the  will  of  the  Almighty  that 
there  should  be  a  diversity  of  religious  opinions  amongst  us  :  it 
affords  a  larger  field  for  our  Christian  kindness.  Were  we  all 
of  one  way  of  thinking,  our  religious  dispositions  would  want 
matter  for  probation  ;  and,  on  this  liberal  principle,  I  look  on 
the  various  denominations  among  us  to  be  like  children  of  the 
same  family,  differing  only  in  what  is  called  their  Christian, 
names." 


I79S]  ''THE  AGE  OF  REASON."  205 

[There  was  no  pedantry  whatever  about  Paine, 
this  obedient  son  of  Humanity.  He  would  defend 
Man  against  men,  against  sects  and  parties  ;  he 
would  never  quarrel  about  the  botanical  label  of  a 
tree  bearinof  such  fruits  as  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence.  But  no  man  better  knew  the  power  of 
words,  and  that  a  botanical  error  may  sometimes 
result  in  destructive  treatment  of  the  tree.  For 
this  reason  he  censured  the  Quakers  for  opposing 
the  Revolution  on  the  ground  that,  in  the  words  of 
their  testimony  (1776),  "  the  setting  up  and  putting 
down  kings  and  governments  is  God's  peculiar 
prerogative."  Kings,  he  answers,  are  not  removed 
by  miracles,  but  by  just  such  means  as  the  Ameri- 
cans were  using.  "  Oliver  Cromwell  thanks  you. 
Charles,  then,  died  not  by  the  hands  of  man ;  and 
should  the  present  proud  imitator  of  him  come  to 
the  same  untimely  end,  the  writers  and  publishers 
of  the  Testimony  are  bound,  by  the  doctrine  it 
contains,  to  applaud  the  fact." 

Paine  was  a  Christian.  In  his  "  Epistle  to 
Quakers"  he  speaks  of  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews 
as  "foretold  by  our  Saviour."  In  his  famous  first 
Crisis  he  exhorts  the  Americans  not  to  throw 
"the  burden  of  the  day  upon  Providence,  but 
'  show  your  faith  by  your  works,'  that  God  may 
bless  you."  For  in  those  days  there  was  visible  to 
such  eyes  as  his,  as  to  anti-slavery  eyes  in  our  civil 
war, 

"A  fiery  Gospel  writ  in  burnished  rows  of  steel." 

The  Republic,  not  American  but  Human,  became 
Paine's  religion.  "  Divine  Providence  intends  this 
•country  to  be  the  asylum  of  persecuted  virtue  from 


2o6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794- 


every  quarter  of  the  globe."  So  he  had  written 
before  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  In  1778 
he  finds  that  there  still  survives  some  obstructive 
superstition  among  English  churchmen  in  America 
about  the  connection  of  Protestant  Christianity 
with  the  King.  In  his  seventh  Crisis  (Novem- 
ber 21,  1778)  he  wrote  sentences  inspired  by  his 
new  conception  of  religion. 

"  In  a  Christian  and  philosophical  sense,  mankind  seem  to 
have  stood  still  at  individual  civilization,  and  to  retain  as 
nations  all  the  original  rudeness  of  nature.  ...  As  individuals 
we  profess  ourselves  Christians,  but  as  nations  we  are  heathens, 
Romans,  and  what  not.  I  remember  the  late  Admiral  Saunders 
declaring  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  in  the  time  of 
peace,  '  That  the  city  of  Madrid  laid  in  ashes  was  not  a  suffi- 
cient atonement  for  the  Spaniards  taking  off  the  rudder  of  an 
English  sloop  of  war.'  .  .  .  The  arm  of  Britain  has  been  spoken 
of  as  the  arm  of  the  Almighty,  and  she  has  lived  of  late  as  if 
she  thought  the  whole  world  created  for  her  diversion.  Her 
politics,  instead  of  civilizing,  has  tended  to  brutalize  mankind, 
and  under  the  vain  unmeaning  title  of  '  Defender  of  the  Faith,' 
she  has  made  war  like  an  Indian  on  the  Religion  of  Humanity."  ' 

Thus,  forty  years  before  Auguste  Comte  sat,  a 
youth  of  twenty,  at  the  feet  of  Saint  Simon,  learn- 
ing the  principles  now  known  as  "  The  Religion 
of  Humanity,"  Thomas  Paine  had  not  only  minted 
the  name,  but  with  it  the  idea  of  international 
civilization,  in  which  nations  are  to  treat  each 
other  as  gentlemen  in  private  life.  National 
honor  v/as,  he  said,  confused  with  "bullying"; 
but  "  that  which  is  the  best  character  for  an  indi- 

'  Mr.  Thaddeus  B.  Wakeman,  an  eminent  representative  of  the  "  Religion 
of  Humanity,"  writes  me  that  he  has  not  found  this  phrase  in  any  work 
earlier  than  Vs!m.€%  Crisis,  vii. 


17951 


'THE  AGE  OF  reason:" 


207 


vidual  is  the  best  character  for  a  nation."  The 
(  great  and  pregnant  idea  was,  as  in  the  previous 
instances,  occasional.  It  was  a  sentence  passed 
upon  the  "  Defendcr-of-the-Faith  "  superstition, 
which  detached  faith  from  humanity,  and  had 
pressed  the  Indian's  tomahawk  into  the  hands  of 
Jesus. 

At  the  close  of  the  American  Revolution  there 
appeared  little  need  for  a  religious  reformation. 
The  people  were  happy,  prosperous,  and,  there 
being  no  favoritism  toward  any  sect  under  the  new 
state  constitutions,  but  perfect  equality  and  free- 
dom, the  Religion  of  Humanity  meant  sheathing  of 
controversial  swords  also.  It  summoned  every  man 
to  lend  a  hand  in  repairing  the  damages  of  war, 
and  building  the  new  nationality.  Paine  therefore 
set  about  constructing  his  iron  bridge  of  thirteen 
symbolic  ribs,  to  overleap  the  ice-floods  and  quick- 
sands of  rivers.  His  assistant  in  this  work,  at 
Bordentown,  New  Jersey,  John  Hall,  gives  us  in 
his  journal,  glimpses  of  the  religious  ignorance  and 
fanaticism  of  that  region.  But  Paine  showed  no 
aggressive  spirit  towards  them.  "  My  employer," 
writes  Hall  (1786),  has  Common  Sense  enough  to 
disbelieve  most  of  the  common  systematic  theories 
of  Divinity,  but  does  not  seem  to  establish  any  for 
himself."  In  all  of  his  intercourse  with  Hall  (a 
Unitarian  just  from  England),  and  his  neighbors, 
there  is  no  trace  of  any  disposition  to  deprive  any 
one  of  a  belief,  or  to  excite  any  controversy.  Hu- 
manity did  not  demand  it,  and  by  that  direction  he 
left  the  people  to  their  weekly  toils  and  Sunday 
sermons. 


208 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1794- 


But  when  (1787)  he  was  in  England,  Humanity 
gave  another  command.  It  was  obeyed  in  the 
eloquent  pages  on  religious  liberty  and  equality 
in  "  The  Rights  of  Man."  Burke  had  alarmed 
the  nation  by  pointing  out  that  the  Revolution  in 
France  had  laid  its  hand  on  religion.  The  cry  was 
raised  that  religion  was  in  danger.  Paine  then 
uttered  his  impressive  paradox  : 

"  Toleration  is  not  the  opposite  of  intoleration,  but  the  coun- 
terfeit of  it.  Both  are  despotisms.  The  one  assumes  the  right 
of  withholding  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  other  of  granting 
it.  The  one  is  the  pope  armed  with  fire  and  faggot,  the  other 
is  the  pope  selling  or  granting  indulgences.  .  .  .  Tolera- 
tion by  the  same  assumed  authority  by  which  it  tolerates  a 
man  to  pay  his  worship,  presumptuously  and  blasphemously 
sets  itself  up  to  tolerate  the  Almighty  to  receive  it.  .  .  . 
Who  then  art  thou,  vain  dust  and  ashes,  by  whatever  name 
thou  art  called,  whether  a  king,  a  bishop,  a  church  or  a  state,  a 
parliament  or  anything  else,  that  obtrudest  thine  insignificance 
between  the  soul  of  man  and  his  maker  ?  Mind  thine  own 
concerns.  If  he  believes  not  as  thou  believest,  it  is  a  proof 
that  thou  believest  not  as  he  believeth,  and  there  is  no  earthly 
power  can  determine  between  you.  .  .  .  Religion,  without 
regard  to  names,  as  directing  itself  from  the  universal  family 
of  mankind  to  the  divine  object  of  all  adoration,  is  man  bring- 
ing to  his  maker  the  fruits  of  his  heart  ;  and  though  these 
fruits  may  differ  like  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  the  grateful  trib- 
ute of  every  one  is  accepted. 

This,  which  I  condense  with  reluctance,  was  the 
affirmation  which  the  Religion  of  Humanity  needed 
in  England.  But  when  he  came  to  sit  in  the 
French  Convention  a  new  burden  rolled  upon  him. 
There  was  Marat  with  the  Bible  always  before  him, 
picking  out  texts  that  justified  his  murders  ;  there 
were  Robespierre  and  Couthon  invoking  the  God 


1795] 


'THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


209 


/of  Nature  to  sanction  just  such  massacres  as  Marat 
found  in  his  Bible  ;  and  there  were  crude  "  atheists  " 
consecrating  the  ferocities  of  nature  more  danger- 
ously than  if  they  had  named  them  Siva,  Typhon,  or 
Satan.  Paine  had  published  the  rights  of  man  for 
men  ;  but  here  human  hearts  and  minds  had  been 
buried  under  the  superstitions  of  ages.  The  great 
mischief  had  ensued,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  by  the 
possession  of  power  before  they  understood  princi- 
ples :  they  earned  liberty  in  words  but  not  in  fact." 
Exhumed  suddenly,  as  if  from  some  Nineveh,  resus- 
citated into  semi-conscious  strength,  they  remem- 
bered only  the  methods  of  the  allied  inquisitors 
and  tyrants  they  were  overthrowing  ;  they  knew  no 
justice  but  vengeance  ;  and  when  on  crumbled  idols 
they  raised  forms  called  "  Nature  "  and  "  Reason," 
old  idols  gained  life  in  the  new  forms.  These  were 
the  gods  which  had  but  too  literally  created,  by  the 
slow  evolutionary  force  of  human  sacrifices,  the  new 
revolutionary  priesthood.  Their  massacres  could 
not  be  questioned  by  those  who  acknowledged  the 
divine  hand  in  the  slaughter  of  Canaanites.^ 

'  On  August  10,  1793,  there  was  a  sort  of  communion  of  the  Convention 
around  the  statue  of  Nature,  whose  breasts  were  fountains  of  water.  Herault 
de  Sechelles,  at  that  time  president,  addressed  the  statue  :  "  Sovereign  of 
the  savage  and  of  the  enlightened  nations,  O  Nature,  this  great  people, 
gathered  at  the  first  beam  of  day  before  thee,  is  free  !  It  is  in  thy  bosom,  it 
is  in  thy  sacred  sources,  that  it  has  recovered  its  rights,  that  it  has  regener- 
ated itself  after  traversing  so  many  ages  of  error  and  servitude  :  it  must  re- 
turn to  the  simplicity  of  thy  ways  to  rediscover  liberty  and  equality.  O 
Nature  !  receive  the  expression  of  the  eternal  attachment  of  the  French 
people  for  thy  laws  ;  and  may  the  teeming  waters  gushing  from  thy  breasts, 
may  this  pure  beverage  which  refreshed  the  first  human  beings,  consecrate 
in  this  Cup  of  Fraternity  and  Equality  the  vows  that  France  makes  thee  this 
day, — the  most  beautiful  that  the  sun  has  illumined  since  it  was  suspended 
in  the  immensity  of  space."  The  cup  passed  around  from  lip  to  lip,  amid 
fervent  ejaculations.    Next  year  Nature's  breasts  issued  Herault's  blood. 

VOL.  II.  — 14 


210 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1794- 


The  Religion  of  Humanity  again  issued  its  com- 
mand to  its  minister.  The  "  Age  of  Reason " 
was  written,  in  its  first  form,  and  printed  in  French. 
"  Couthon,"  says  Lanthenas,  "  to  whom  I  sent  it, 
seemed  offended  with  me  for  having  translated  it."^ 
Couthon  raged  against  the  priesthood,  but  could 
not  tolerate  a  work  which  showed  vengeance  to  be 
atheism,  and  compassion — not  merely  for  men,  but 
for  animals — true  worship  of  God.  On  the  other 
hand,  Paine's  opposition  to  atheism  would  appear 
to  have  brought  him  into  dangler  from  another 
quarter,  in  which  religion  could  not  be  distinguished 
from  priestcraft.  In  a  letter  to  Samuel  Adams 
Paine  says  that  he  endangered  his  life  by  opposing 
the  king's  execution,  and  "  a  second  time  by  op- 
posing atheism."  Those  who  denounce  the  "  Age 
of  Reason "  may  thus  learn  that  red-handed 
Couthon,  who  hewed  men  to  pieces  before  his  Lord, 
and  those  who  acknowledged  no  Lord,  agreed  with 
them.  Under  these  menaces  the  original  work  was 
as  I  have  inferred,  suppressed.  But  the  demand 
of  Humanity  was  peremptory,  and  Paine  re-wrote  it 
all,  and  more.  When  it  appeared  he  was  a  prisoner  ; 
his  life  was  in  Couthon's  hands.  He  had  personally 
nothing  to  gain  by  its  publication — neither  wife, 
child,  nor  relative  to  reap  benefit  by  its  sale.  It  was 
published  as  purely  for  the  good  of  mankind  as  any 
work  ever  written.  Nothing  could  be  more  simply 
true  than  his  declaration,  near  the  close  of  life  : 

'  The  letter  of  Lanthenas  to  Merlin  de  Thionville,  of  which  the  original 
French  is  before  me,  is  quoted  in  an  article  in  Scribncr,  September,  1880, 
by  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne  (former  Minister  to  France)  ;  it  is  reprinted  in 
Remsburg's  compilation  of  testimonies:  "Thomas  Paine,  the  Apostle  of 
Religious  and  Political  Liberty  "  (1880).    See  also  p.  135  of  this  volume. 


1795] 


'THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


211 


"  As  in  my  political  works  my  motive  and  object  have  been 
\,o  give  man  an  elevated  sense  of  his  own  character,  and  free 
him  from  the  slavish  and  superstitious  absurdity  of  monarchy 
and  hereditary  government,  so,  in  my  publications  on  religious 
subjects,  my  endeavors  have  been  directed  to  bring  man  to  a 
right  use  of  the  reason  that  God  has  given  him  ;  to  inpress  on 
him  the  great  principles  of  divine  morality,  justice,  and  mercy, 
and  a  benevolent  disposition  to  all  men,  and  to  all  creatures  ; 
and  to  inspire  in  him  a  spirit  of  trust,  confidence  and  consola- 
tion, in  his  Creator,  unshackled  by  the  fables  of  books  pre- 
tending to  be  the  word  of  God." 

It  is  misleading  at  the  present  day  to  speak  of 
Paine  as  an  opponent  of  Christianity.  This  would 
be  true  were  Christianity  judged  by  the  authorized 
formulas  of  any  church  ;  but  nothing  now  acknowl- 
edged as  Christianity  by  enlightened  Christians 
of  any  denomination  was  known  to  him.  In  our 
time,  when  the  humanizing  wave,  passing  through 
all  churches,  drowns  old  controversies,  floats  the 
dogmas,  till  it  seems  ungenerous  to  quote  creeds 
and  confessions  in  the  presence  of  our  "orthodox" 
lovers  of  man — even  "  totally  depraved "  and 
divinely  doomed  man — the  theological  eighteenth 
century  is  inconceivable.  Could  one  wander  from 
any  of  our  churches,  unless  of  the  Christian  Pagans 
or  remote  villagers  (pagani),  into  those  of  the  last 
century,  he  would  find  himself  moving  in  a  wilder- 
ness of  cinders,  with  only  the  plaintive  song  of 
John  and  Charles  Wesley  to  break  the  solitude. 
If  he  would  hear  recognition  of  the  human  Jesus, 
on  whose  credit  the  crowned  Christ  is  now  main- 
tained, he  would  be  sharply  told  that  it  were  a  sin  to 
"  know  Christ  after  the  flesh,"  and  must  seek  such 
recognition  among  those  stoned  as  infidels.  Three 


212 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1794- 


noble  and  pathetic  tributes  to  the  Man  of  Nazareth 
are  audible  from  the  last  century — those  of  Rous- 
seau, Voltaire,  and  Paine.  From  its  theologians 
and  its  pulpits  not  one  !  Should  the  tribute  of 
Paine  be  to-day  submitted,  without  his  name,  to 
our  most  eminent  divines,  even  to  leading  Ameri- 
can and  English  Bishops,  beside  any  theological 
estimate  of  Christ  from  the  same  century,  the  Jesus 
of  Paine  would  be  surely  preferred. 

Should  our  cultured  Christian  of  to-day  press  be- 
yond those  sectarian,  miserable  controversies  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  known  to  him  now  as  cold 
ashes,  into  the  seventeenth  century,  he  would  find 
himself  in  a  comparatively  embowered  land  ;  that 
is,  in  England,  and  in  a  few  oases  in  America — like 
that  of  Roger  Williams  in  Rhode  Island.  In  Eng- 
land he  would  find  brain  and  heart  still  in  harmony, 
as  in  Tillotson  and  South  ;  still  more  in  Bishop 
Jeremy  Taylor,  "  Shakespeare  of  divines."  He 
would  hear  this  Jeremy  reject  the  notions  of  origi- 
nal sin  and  transmitted  guilt,  maintain  the  "liberty 
of  prophesying,"  and  that  none  should  suffer  for 
conclusions  concerning  a  book  so  difficult  of  inter- 
pretation as  the  Bible.  In  those  unsophisticated 
years  Jesus  and  the  disciples  and  the  Marys  still 
wore  about  them  the  reality  gained  in  miracle-plays. 
What  Paine  need  arise  where  poets  wrote  the  creed, 
and  men  knew  the  Jesus  of  whom  Thomas  Dekker 
wrote  : 

"  The  best  of  men 
That  e'er  wore  earth  about  him  was  a  sufferer  ; 
A  soft,  meek,  patient,  humble,  tranquil  spirit, 
The  first  true  gentleman  that  ever  breathed." 


1795] 


'THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


213 


Dean  Swift,  whose  youth  was  nourished  in  tliat 
living  age,  passed  into  the  era  of  dismal  disputes, 
where  he  found  the  churches  "dormitories  of  the 
living  as  well  as  of  the  dead."  Some  ten  years 
before  Paine's  birth  the  Dean  wrote  :  "  Since  the 
union  of  Divinity  and  Humanity  is  the  great 
Article  of  our  Religion,  't  is  odd  to  see  some 
clergymen,  in  their  writings  of  Divinity,  wholly 
devoid  of  Humanity."  Men  have,  he  said,  enough 
religion  to  hate,  but  not  to  love.  Had  the  Dean 
lived  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  he 
might  have  discovered  exceptions  to  this  holy 
heartlessness,  chiefly  among  those  he  had  tradi- 
tionally feared — the  Socinians.  These,  like  the 
Magdalene,  were  seeking  the  lost  humanity  of 
Jesus.  He  would  have  sympathized  with  Wesley, 
who  escaped  from  "  dormitories  of  the  living  "  far 
enough  to  publish  the  Life  of  a  Socinian  (Firmin), 
with  the  brave  apology,  "  I  am  sick  of  opinions, 
give  me  the  life."  But  Socianism,  in  eagerness  to 
disown  its  bolder  children,  presently  lost  the  heart 
of  Jesus,  and  when  Paine  was  recovering  it  the 
best  of  them  could  not  comprehend  his  separation 
of  the  man  from  the  myth.  So  came  on  the  desic- 
cated Christianity  of  which  Emerson  said,  even 
among  the  Unitarians  of  fifty  years  ago,  "  The 
prayers  and  even  the  dogmas  of  our  church  are 
like  the  zodiac  of  Denderah,  wholly  insulated  from 
anything  now  extant  in  the  life  and  business  of 
the  people."  Emerson  may  have  been  reading 
Paine's  idea  that  Christ  and  the  Twelve  were 
mythically  connected  with  Sun  and  Zodiac,  this 
speculation  being  an  indication  of  their  distance 


214 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  \M9A~ 


from  the  Jesus  he  tenderly  revered.  If  Paine  rent 
the  temple-veils  of  his  time,  and  revealed  the  stony 
images  behind  them,  albeit  with  rudeness,  let  it 
not  be  supposed  that  those  forms  were  akin  to 
the  Jesus  and  the  Marys  whom  skeptical  criticism 
is  re-incarnating,  so  that  they  dwell  with  us.  Out- 
side Paine's  heart  the  Christ  of  his  time  was  not 
more  like  the  Jesus  of  our  time  than  Jupiter  was 
like  the  Prometheus  he  bound  on  a  rock.  The 
English  Christ  was  then  not  a  Son  of  Man,  but  a 
Prince  of  Dogma,  bearing  handcuffs  for  all  who 
reasoned  about  him  ;  a  potent  phantasm  that  tore 
honest  thinkers  from  their  families  and  cast  them 
into  outer  darkness,  because  they  circulated  the 
works  of  Paine,  which  reminded  the  clergy  that 
the  Jesus  even  of  their  own  Bible  sentenced  those 
only  who  ministered  not  to  the  hungry  and  naked, 
the  sick  and  in  prison.  Paine's  religious  culture 
was  English.  There  the  brain  had  retreated  to 
deistic  caves,  the  heart  had  gone  off  to  "  Sal- 
vationism  "  of  the  time  ;  the  churches  were  given 
over  to  the  formalist  and  the  politician,  who  carried 
divine  sanction  to  the  repetition  of  biblical  oppres- 
sions and  massacres  by  Burke  and  Pitt.  And  in 
all  the  world  there  had  not  been  one  to  cry 
Sitrsum  Corda  against  the  consecrated  tyranny 
until  that  throb  of  Paine's  heart  which  brought  on 
it  the  vulture.  But  to-day,  were  we  not  swayed  by 
names  and  prejudices,  it  would  bring  on  that 
prophet  of  the  divine  humanity,  even  the  Christian 
dove. 

Soon  after  the  appearance  of  Part  First  of  the 
"  Age  of  Reason  "  it  was  expurgated  of  its  negative 


17951 


'THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


215 


xjiriticisms,  probably  by  some  English  Unitarians, 
and  published  as  a  sermon,  with  text  from  Job  xi., 
7 :  "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ? 
Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  to  perfection  ?" 
It  was  printed  anonymously ;  and  were  its  sixteen 
pages  read  in  any  orthodox  church  to-day  it  would 
be*  regarded  as  admirable.  It  might  be  criticised 
by  left  wings  as  somewhat  old-fashioned  in  the 
warmth  of  its  theism.  It  is  fortunate  that  Paine's 
name  was  not  appended  to  this  doubtful  use  of  his 
work,  for  it  would  have  been  a  serious  misrepre- 
sentation.' That  his  Religion  of  Humanity  took 
the  deistical  form  was  an  evolutionary  necessity. 
English  deism  was  not  a  religion,  but  at  first  a 
philosophy,  and  afterwards  a  scientific  generaliza- 
tion. Its  founder,  as  a  philosophy,  Herbert  of 
Cherbury,  had  created  the  matrix  in  which  was 
formed  the  Quaker  religion  of  the  "  inner  light," 
by  which  Paine's  childhood  was  nurtured ;  its 
founder  as  a  scientific  theory  of  creation,  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  had  determined  the  matrix  in  which  all 
unorthodox  systems  should  originate.  The  real 
issue  was  between  a  sanctified  ancient  science  and 
a  modern  science.  The  utilitarian  English  race, 
always  the  stronghold  of  science,  had  established 
the  freedom  of  the  new  deism,  which  thus  became 
the  mould  into  which  all  unorthodoxies  ran.  From 
the  time  of  Newton,  English  and  American  thought 

*  "A  Lecture  on  the  Existence  and  Attributes  of  the  Deity,  as  Deduced 
from  a  Contemplation  of  His  Works.  M,DCC,XCV."  The  copy  in  my 
possession  is  inscribed  with  pen  :  "  This  was  J.  Joyce's  copy,  and  noticed 
by  him  as  Paine's  work."  Mr.  Joyce  was  a  Unitarian  minister.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  suppression  of  Paine's  name  was  in  deference  to  his  outlawry, 
and  to  the  dread,  by  a  sect  whose  legal  position  was  precarious,  of  any  sus- 
picion of  connection  with  "  Painite  "  principles. 


2l6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1794- 


and  belief  have  steadily  become  Unitarian.  The 
dualism  of  Jesus,  the  thousand  years  of  faith  which 
gave  every  soul  its  post  in  a  great  war  between 
God  and  Satan,  without  which  there  would  have 
been  no  church,  has  steadily  receded  before  a 
monotheism  which,  under  whatever  verbal  dis- 
guises, makes  the  deity  author  of  all  evil,  English 
Deism  prevailed  only  to  be  reconquered  into 
alliance  with  a  tribal  god  of  antiquity,  developed 
into  the  tutelar  deity  of  Christendom.  And  this 
evolution  involved  the  transformation  of  Jesus  into 
Jehovah,  deity  of  a  "chosen"  or  "elect"  people. 
It  was  impossible  for  an  apostle  of  the  international 
republic,  of  the  human  brotherhood,  whose  Father 
was  degraded  by  any  notion  of  favoritism  to  a  race, 
or  to  a  "  first-born  son,"  to  accept  a  name  in  which 
foreign  religions  had  been  harried,  and  Chris- 
tendom established  on  a  throne  of  thinkers'  skulls. 
The  philosophical  and  scientific  deism  of  Herbert 
and  Newton  had  grown  cold  in  Paine's  time,  but  it 
was  detached  from  all  the  internecine  figure-heads 
called  gods  ;  it  appealed  to  the  reason  of  all  man- 
kind ;  and  in  that  manger,  amid  the  beasts,  royal 
and  revolutionary,  was  cradled  anew  the  divine 
humanity. 

Paine  wrote  "  Deism  "  on  his  banner  in  a  mili- 
tant rather  than  an  affirmative  way.  He  was  aim- 
ing to  rescue  the  divine  Idea  from  traditional 
degradations  in  order  that  he  might  with  it  con- 
front a  revolutionary  Atheism  defying  the  celestial 
monarchy.  In  a  later  work,  speaking  of  a  theologi- 
cal book,  "  An  x'\ntidote  to  Deism,"  he  remarks : 
"An  antidote  to  Deism  must  be  Atheism."  So  far 


1795] 


'THE  AGE  OF  REASON." 


217 


it  is  theological,  the  "  Age  of  Reason "  was 
meant  to  combat  Infidelity.  It  raised  before  the 
F'rench  the  pure  deity  of  Herbert,  of  Newton,  and 
other  Engflish  deists  whose  works  were  unknown  in 
France.  But  when  we  scrutinize  Paine's  positive 
Theism  we  find  a  distinctive  nucleus  forming  within 
the  nebulous  mass  of  deistical  speculations.  Paine 
recognizes  a  deity  only  in  the  astronomic  laws  and 
intelligible  order  of  the  universe,  and  in  the  corre- 
sponding reason  and  moral  nature  of  man.  Like 
Kant,  he  was  filled  with  awe  by  the  starry  heavens 
and  man's  sense  of  right.'  The  first  part  of  the 
"  Age  of  Reason "  is  chiefly  astronomical ;  with 
those  celestial  wonders  he  contrasts  such  stories  as 
that  of  Samson  and  the  foxes.  "  When  we  con- 
template the  immensity  of  that  Being  who  directs 
and  governs  the  incomprehensible  Whole,  of  which 
the  utmost  ken  of  human  sight  can  discover  but  a 
part,  we  ought  to  feel  shame  at  calling  such  paltry 
stories  the  word  of  God."  Then  turning  to  the 
Atheist  he  says  :  "  We  did  not  make  ourselves ;  we 
did  not  make  the  principles  of  science,  which  we 
discover  and  apply  but  cannot  alter."  The  only 
revelation  of  God  in  which  he  believes  is  "  the  uni- 
versal display  of  himself  in  the  works  of  creation, 
and  that  repugnance  we  feel  in  ourselves  to  bad 
actions,  and  disposition  to  do  good  ones."  "  The 
only  idea  we  can  have  of  serving  God,  is  that  of 

'  Astronomy,  as  we  know,  he  had  studied  profoundly.  In  early  life  he  had 
studied  astronomic  globes,  purchased  at  the  cost  of  many  a  dinner,  and  the 
orrery,  and  attended  lectures  at  the  Royal  Society.  In  the  "Age  of 
Reason  "  he  writes,  twenty-one  years  before  Herschel's  famous  paper  on  the 
Nebulre  :  "  The  probability  is  that  each  of  those  fixed  stars  is  also  a  sun, 
round  which  another  system  of  worlds  or  planets,  though  too  remote  for  us 
to  discover,  performs  its  revolutions. " 


2l8 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794- 


contributing  to  the  happiness  of  the  living  creation 
that  God  has  made." 

It  thus  appears  that  in  Paine's  Theism  the  deity 
is  made  manifest,  not  by  omnipotence,  a  word  I  do 
not  remember  in  his  theories,  but  in  this  correspond- 
ence of  universal  order  and  bounty  with  reason 
and  conscience,  and  the  humane  heart.  In  later 
works  this  speculative  side  of  his  Theism  presented 
a  remarkable  Zoroastrian  variation.  When  pressed 
with  Bishop  Butler's  terrible  argument  against  pre- 
vious Deism,— that  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  no  more 
cruel  than  the  God  of  Nature, — Paine  declared  his 
preference  for  the  Persian  religion,  which  exon- 
erated the  deity  from  responsibility  for  natural 
evils,  above  the  Hebrew  which  attributed  such 
things  to  God.  He  was  willing  to  sacrifice  God's 
omnipotence  to  his  humanity.  He  repudiates  every 
notion  of  a  devil,  but  was  evidently  unwilling  to 
ascribe  the  unconquered  realms  of  chaos  to  the 
divine  Being  in  whom  he  believed. 

Thus,  while  theology  was  lowering  Jesus  to  a 
mere  King,  glorying  in  baubles  of  crown  and  throne, 
pleased  with  adulation,  and  developing  him  into  an 
authorizor  of  all  the  ills  and  agonies  of  the  world, 
so  depriving  him  of  his  humanity,  Paine  was 
recovering  from  the  universe  something  like  the 
religion  of  Jesus  himself.  "  Why  even  of  your- 
selves judge  ye  not  what  is  right."  In  affirming 
the  Religion  of  Humanity,  Paine  did  not  mean 
what  Comte  meant,  a  personification  of  the  con- 
tinuous life  of  our  race ' ;  nor  did  he  merely  mean 

'  Paine's  friend  and  fellow-prisoner,  Anacharsis  Clootz,  was  the  first  to 
describe  Humanity  as  "  L'Etre  Supreme." 


1795] 


'THE  AGE  OF  REASON. 


219 


jbenevolence  towards  all  living  creatures.  He 
affirmed  a  Religion  based  on  the  authentic  divinity 
of  that  which  is  supreme  in  human  nature  and  dis- 
tinctive of  it.  The  sense  of  right,  justice,  love, 
mercy,  is  God  himself  in  man  ;  this  spirit  judges  all 
things, — all  alleged  revelations,  all  gods.  In 
affirming  a  deity  too  good,  loving,  just,  to  do  what 
is  ascribed  to  Jahve,  Paine  was  animated  by  the 
same  spirit  that  led  the  early  believer  to  turn  from 
heartless  elemental  gods  to  one  born  of  woman, 
bearing  in  his  breast  a  human  heart.  Pauline 
theology  took  away  this  human  divinity,  and 
effected  a  restoration,  by  making  the  Son  of  Man 
Jehovah,  and  commanding  the  heart  back  from  its 
seat  of  judgment,  where  Jesus  had  set  it,  "  Shall 
the  clay  say  to  the  potter,  why  hast  thou  formed  me 
thus  ?  "  "  Yes,"  answered  Paine,  "  if  the  thing  felt 
itself  hurt,  and  could  speak."  He  knew  as  did 
Emerson,  whom  he  often  anticipates,  that  "  no  god 
dare  wrong  a  worm." 

The  force  of  the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  is  not  in  its 
theology,  though  this  ethical  variation  of  Deism  in 
the  direction  of  humanity  is  of  exceeding  interest 
to  students  who  would  trace  the  evolution  of  avatars 
and  incarnations.  Paine's  theology  was  but  gradu- 
ally developed,  and  in  this  work  is  visible  only  as  a 
tide  beginning  to  rise  under  the  fiery  orb  of  his 
religious  passion.  For  abstract  theology  he  cares 
little.  "  If  the  belief  of  errors  not  morally  bad  did 
no  mischief,  it  would  make  no  part  of  the  moral 
duty  of  man  to  oppose  and  remove  them."  He 
evinces  regret  that  the  New  Testament,  containing 
so  many  elevated  moral  precepts,  should,  by  lean- 


220 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i794- 


ing  on  supposed  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament, 
have  been  burdened  with  its  barbarities.  "It  must 
follow  the  fate  of  its  foundation."  This  fatal  con- 
nection, he  knows,  is  not  the  work  of  Jesus  ;  he 
ascribes  it  to  the  church  which  evoked  from  the 
Old  Testament  a  crushing  system  of  priestly  and 
imperial  power  reversing  the  benign  principles  of 
Jesus.  It  is  this  oppression,  the  throne  of  all  op- 
pressions, that  he  assails.  His  affirmations  of  the 
human  deity  are  thus  mainly  expressed  in  his 
vehement  denials. 

This  long  chapter  must  now  draw  to  a  close.  It 
would  need  a  volume  to  follow  thoroughly  the 
argument  of  this  epoch-making  book,  to  which  I 
have  here  written  only  an  introduction,  calling  at- 
tention to  its  evolutionary  factors,  historical  and 
spiritual.  Such  then  was  the  new  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress. As  in  that  earlier  prison,  at  Bedford,  there 
shone  in  Paine's  cell  in  the  Luxembourg  a  great  and 
imperishable  vision,  which  multitudes  are  still  fol- 
lowing. The  book  is  accessible  in  many  editions. 
The  Christian  teacher  of  to-day  may  well  ponder 
this  fact.  The  atheists  and  secularists  of  our  time 
are  printing,  reading,  revering  a  work  that  opposes 
their  opinions.  For  above  its  arguments  and  criti- 
cisms they  see  the  faithful  heart  contending  with  a 
mighty  Apollyon,  girt  with  all  the  forces  of  revolu- 
tionary and  royal  Terrorism.  Just  this  one  Eng- 
lishman, born  again  in  America,  confronting  George 
III.  and  Robespierre  on  earth  and  tearing  the  like 
of  them  from  the  throne  of  the  universe  !  Were  it 
only  for  the  grandeur  of  this  spectacle  in  the  past 
Paine  would  maintain  his  hold  on  thoughtful  minds. 


1795]  '"THE  AGE  OF  REASON."  221 

But  in  America  the  hold  is  deeper  than  that.  In 
this  self-forfrettintj  insurrection  of  the  human  heart 
against  deified  Inhumanity  there  is  an  expression 
of  the  inarticulate  wrath  of  humanity  against  con- 
tinuance of  the  same  wrong.  In  the  circulation 
throughout  the  earth  of  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of 
God,  even  after  its  thousand  serious  errors  of 
translation  are  turned,  by  exposure,  into  falsehoods  ; 
in  the  deliverance  to  savages  of  a  scriptural  sanc- 
tion of  their  tomahawks  and  poisoned  arrow^s  ;  in 
the  diffusion  among  cruel  tribes  of  a  religion  based 
on  human  sacrifice,  after  intelligence  has  abandoned 
it ;  in  the  preservation  of  costly  services  to  a  deity 
who  "  needs  nothing  at  men's  hands,"  beside  hovels 
of  the  poor  who  need  much  ;  in  an  exemption  of 
sectarian  property  from  taxation  which  taxes  every 
man  to  support  the  sects,  and  continues  the  alliance 
of  church  and  state  ;  in  these  things,  and  others— 
the  list  is  longf — there  is  still  visible,  however 
refined,  the  sting  and  claw  of  the  Apollyon  against 
whom  Paine  hurled  his  far-reaching  dart.  The 
"Age  of  Reason  "  was  at  first  published  in  America 
by  a  religious  house,  and  as  a  religious  book.  It 
was  circulated  in  Virginia  by  Washington's  old 
friend.  Parson  Weems.  It  is  still  circulated, 
though  by  supposed  unbelievers,  as  a  religious 
book,  and  such  it  is. 

Its  religion  is  expressed  largely  in  those  same 
denunciations  which  theologians  resent.  I  have 
explained  them  ;  polite  agnostics  apologize  for 
them,  or  cast  Paine  over  as  a  Jonah  of  the  rational- 
istic ship.  But  to  make  one  expression  more  gentle 
would  mar  the  work.    As  it  stands,  with  all  its  vio- 


222 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


lences  and  faults,  it  represents,  as  no  elaborate  or 
polite  treatise  could,  the  agony  and  bloody  sweat 
of  a  heart  breaking  in  the  presence  of  crucified 
Humanity.  What  dear  heads,  what  noble  hearts 
had  that  man  seen  laid  low ;  what  shrieks  had  he 
heard  in  the  desolate  homes  of  the  Condorcets,  the 
Brissots  ;  what  Canaanite  and  Midianite  massacres 
had  he  seen  before  the  altar  of  Brotherhood, 
erected  by  himself  !  And  all  because  every  human 
being  had  been  taught  from  his  cradle  that  there  is 
something  more  sacred  than  humanity,  and  to 
which  man  should  be  sacrificed.  Of  all  those  mas- 
sacred thinkers  not  one  voice  remains  :  they  have 
gone  silent :  over  their  reeking  guillotine  sits  the 
gloating  Apollyon  of  Inhumanity.  But  here  is  one 
man,  a  prisoner,  preparing  for  his  long  silence.  He 
alone  can  speak  for  those  slain  between  the  throne 
and  the  altar.  In  these  outbursts  of  laughter  and 
tears,  these  outcries  that  think  not  of  literary  style, 
these  appeals  from  surrounding  chaos  to  the  starry 
realm  of  order,  from  the  tribune  of  vengeance  to 
the  sun  shining  for  all,  this  passionate  horror  of 
cruelty  in  the  powerful  which  will  brave  a  heartless 
heaven  or  hell  with  its  immortal  indignation, — in 
all  these  the  unfettered  mind  may  hear  the  wail  of 
enthralled  Europe,  sinking  back  choked  with  its 
blood,  under  the  chain  it  tried  to  break.  So  long" 
as  a  link  remains  of  the  same  chain,  binding  reason 
or  heart,  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason  "  will  live.  It  is 
not  a  mere  book — it  is  a  man's  heart. 


V 


CHAPTER  XII. 

FRIENDSHIPS. 

Baron  Pichon,  who  had  been  a  sinuous  Secre- 
tary of  Legation  in  America  under  Genet  and 
Fauchet,  and  attached  to  the  Foreign  Office  in 
France  under  the  Directory,  told  George  Ticknor, 
in  1837,  that  "Tom  Paine,  who  lived  in  Monroe's 
house  at  Paris,  had  a  great  deal  too  much  influence 
over  Monroe."^  The  Baron,  apart  from  his  pre- 
judice against  republicanism  (Talleyrand  was  his 
master),  knew  more  about  American  than  French 
politics  at  the  time  of  Monroe's  mission  in  France. 
The  agitation  caused  in  France  by  Jay's  nego- 
tiations in  England,  and  rumors  set  afloat  by 
their  secrecy,— such  secrecy  being  itself  felt  as  a 
violation  of  good  faith — rendered  Monroe's  posi- 
tion unhappy  and  difficult.  After  Paine's  release 
from  prison,  his  generous  devotion  to  France,  un- 
diminished by  his  wrongs,  added  to  the  painful 
illness  that  reproached  the  Convention's  negligence, 
excited  a  chivalrous  enthusiasm  for  him.  The  ten- 
der care  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Monroe  for  him,  the  fact 
that  this  faithful  friend  of  France  was  in  their 
house,  were  circumstances  of  international  impor- 
tance.   Of  Paine's  fidelity  to  republican  principles, 

'  "  Life  of  George  Ticknor,"  ii.,  p.  113. 
223 


224 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


and  his  indignation  at  their  probable  betrayal  in 
England,  there  could  be  no  doubt  in  any  mind. 
He  was  consulted  by  the  French  Executive,  and 
was  virtually  the  most  important  attache  of  the 
United  States  Legation.  The  "  intrigue  "  of  which 
Thibaudeau  had  spoken,  in  Convention,  as  having 
driven  Paine  from  that  body,  was  not  given  to  the 
public,  but  it  was  well  understood  to  involve  the 
American  President.  If  Paine's  suffering  repre- 
sented in  London  Washington's  deference  to  Eng- 
land, all  the  more  did  he  stand  to  France  as  a 
representative  of  those  who  in  America  were 
battling  for  the  Alliance.  He  was  therefore  a 
tower  of  strength  to  Monroe.  It  will  be  seen  by 
the  subjoined  letter  that  while  he  was  Monroe's 
guest  it  was  to  him  rather  than  the  Minister  that 
the  Foreign  Office  applied  for  an  introduction  of  a 
new  Consul  to  Samuel  Adams,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts— a  Consul  with  whom  Paine  was  not 
personally  acquainted.  The  general  feeling  and 
situation  in  France  at  the  date  of  this  letter  (March 
6th),  and  the  anger  at  Jay's  secret  negotiations  in 
England,  are  reflected  in  it : 

"  My  Dear  Friend, — Mr.  Mozard,  who  is  appointed  Consul, 
will  present  you  this  letter.  He  is  spoken  of  here  as  a  good 
sort  of  man,  and  I  can  have  no  doubt  that  you  will  find  him 
the  same  at  Boston.  When  I  came  from  America  it  was  my 
intention  to  return  the  next  year,  and  I  have  intended  the 
same  every  year  since.  The  case  I  believe  is,  that  as  I  am 
embarked  in  the  revolution,  I  do  not  like  to  leave  it  till  it  is 
finished,  notwithstanding  the  dangers  I  have  run.  I  am  now 
almost  the  only  survivor  of  those  who  began  this  revolution, 
and  I  know  not  how  it  is  that  I  have  escaped.  I  know  how- 
ever that  I  owe  nothing  to  the  government  of  America.  The 


17951 


FRIENDSHIPS. 


225 


\ executive  department  has  never  directed  either  the  former  or 
the  present  Minister  to  enquire  whether  I  was  dead  or  alive, 
in  prison  or  in  liberty,  what  the  cause  of  the  imprisonment 
was,  and  whether  there  was  any  service  or  assistance  it  could 
render.  Mr.  Monroe  acted  voluntarily  in  the  case,  and  re- 
claimed me  as  an  American  citizen  ;  for  the  pretence  for  my 
imprisonment  was  that  I  was  a  foreigner,  born  in  England. 

"The  internal  scene  here  from  the  31  of  May  1793  to  the 
fall  of  Robespierre  has  been  terrible.  I  was  shut  up  in  the 
prison  of  the  Luxembourg  eleven  months,  and  I  find  by  the 
papers  of  Robespierre  that  have  been  published  by  the  Con- 
vention since  his  death,  that  I  was  designed  for  a  worse  fate. 
The  following  memorandum  is  in  his  own  handwriting  : 
*  Demander  que  Thomas  Paine  soit  decrdt^  d'accusation  pour 
les  interets  de  I'Amerique  autant  que  de  la  France.' 

"  You  will  see  by  the  public  papers  that  the  successes  of  the 
French  arms  have  been  and  continue  to  be  astonishing,  more 
especially  since  the  fall  of  Robespierre,  and  the  suppression 
of  the  system  of  Terror.  They  have  fairly  beaten  all  the 
armies  of  Aystria,  Prussia,  England,  Spain,  Sardignia,  and 
Holland.  Holland  is  entirely  conquered,  and  there  is  now  a 
revolution  in  that  country. 

"  I  know  not  how  matters  are  going  on  your  side  the  water, 
but  I  think  everything  is  not  as  it  ought  to  be.  The  appoint- 
ment of  G.  Morris  to  be  Minister  here  was  the  most  unfortunate 
and  the  most  injudicious  appointment  that  could  be  made.  I 
wrote  this  opinion  to  Mr.  Jefferson  at  the  time,  and  I  said  the 
same  to  Morris.  Had  he  not  been  removed  at  the  time  he 
was  I  think  the  two  countries  would  have  been  involved  in 
a  quarrel,  for  it  is  a  fact,  that  he  would  either  have  been 
ordered  away  or  put  in  arrestation  ;  for  he  gave  every  reason 
to  suspect  that  he  was  secretly  a  British  Emissary. 

"  What  Mr.  Jay  is  about  in  England  I  know  not  ;  but  is  it 
possible  that  any  man  who  has  contributed  to  the  Indepen- 
dence of  America,  and  to  free  her  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
British  Government,  can  read  without  shame  and  indignation 
the  note  of  Jay  to  Grenville  ?  That  the  United  States  has  no 
other  resource  than  in  the  Justice  and  inag?ianimity  of  his  Majesty, 
is  a  satire  upon  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  exhibits 
[such]  a  spirit  of  meanness  on  the  part  of  America,  that,  were 

VOL.  II.  —  IS 


226 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


['795 


it  true,  I  should  be  ashamed  of  her.  Such  a  declaration  may 
suit  the  spaniel  character  of  Aristocracy,  but  it  cannot  agree 
with  manly  character  of  a  Republican. 

"  Mr.  Mozard  is  this  moment  come  for  this  letter,  and  he 
sets  off  directly. — God  bless  you,  remember  me  among  the 
circle  of  our  friends,  and  tell  them  how  much  I  wish  to  be 
once  more  among  them. 

"  Thomas  Paine."  ' 

There  are  indications  of  physical  feebleness  as 
well  as  haste  in  this  letter.  The  spring  and  sum- 
mer brought  some  vigor,  but,  as  we  have  seen  by- 
Monroe's  letter  to  Judge  Jones,  he  sank  again, 
and  in  the  autumn  seemed  nearing  his  end.  Once 
more  the  announcement  of  his  death  appeared  in 
England,  this  time  bringing  joy  to  the  orthodox. 
From  the  same  quarter,  probably,  whence  issued, 
in  1793,  "Intercepted  Correspondence  from  Satan 
to  Citizen  Paine,"  came  now  (  1 795  )  a  folio  sheet : 
"  Glorious  News  for  Old  England.  The  British 
Lyon  rous'd  ;  or  John  Bull  for  ever. 

"  The  Fox  has  lost  his  Tail 
The  Ass  has  done  his  Braying, 
The  Devil  has  got  Tom  Paine." 

Good-hearted  as  Paine  was,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  he  was  cruelly  persistent  in  disappointing 
these  British  obituaries.  Despite  anguish,  fever, 
and  abscess — this  for  more  than  a  year  eating  into 
his  side, — he  did  not  gratify  those  prayerful  expec- 
tations by  becoming  a  monument  of  divine  retribu- 
tion. Nay,  amid  all  these  sufferings  he  had  man- 
aged to  finish  Part  Second  of  the  "  Age  of  Reason," 
write  the  "  Dissertation  on  Government,"  and  give 

'  Mr.  Spofford,  Librarian  of  Congress,  has  kindly  copied  this  letter  forme 
from  the  original,  among  the  papers  of  George  Bancroft. 


17951 


FRIENDSHIPS. 


227 


the  Address  before  the  Convention.  Nevertheless 
when,  in  November,  he  was  near  death's  door, 
there  came  from  England  tidings  grievous  enough 
to  crush  a  less  powerful  constitution.  It  was 
reported  that  many  of  his  staunchest  old  friends 
had  turned  agfainst  him  on  account  of  his  heretical 
book.  This  report  seemed  to  find  confirmation  in 
the  successive  volumes  of  Gilbert  Wakefield  in 
reply  to  the  two  Parts  of  Paine's  book.  Wakefield 
held  Unitarian  opinions,  and  did  not  defend  the 
real  fortress  besieged  by  Paine.  He  was  enraged 
that  Paine  should  deal  with  the  authority  of  the 
Bible,  and  the  orthodox  dogmas,  as  if  they  were 
Christianity,  ignoring  unorthodox  versions  alto- 
gether. This,  however,  hardly  explains  the  ex- 
treme and  coarse  vituperation  of  these  replies, 
which  shocked  Wakefield's  friends.^  Although  in 
his  thirty-eighth  year  at  this  time,  Wakefield  was 
not  old  enough  to  escape  the  sequelcs  of  his  former 
clericalism.  He  had  been  a  Fellow  of  Jesus  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  afterwards  had  a  congregation, 
and  had  continued  his  connection  with  the  English 
Church  after  he  was  led,  by  textual  criticism,  to 
adopt  Unitarian  opinions.  He  had  great  reputa- 
tion as  a  linguist,  and  wrote  Scriptural  expositions 
and  retranslations.  But  few  read  his  books,  and  he 
became  a  tutor  in  a  dissenting  college  at  Hackney, 
mainly  under  influence  of  the  Unitarian  leaders, 

'  "The  office  of  '  castigation  '  was  unworthy  of  our  friend's  talents,  and 
detrimental  to  his  purpose  of  persuading  others.  Such  a  contemptuous 
treatment,  even  of  an  unfair  disputant,  was  also  too  well  calculated  to 
depreciate  in  the  public  estimation  that  benevolence  of  character  by  which 
Mr.  Wakefield  was  so  justly  distinguished." — "  Life  of  Gilbert  Wakefield," 
1804,  ii.,  p.  33. 


228 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1795 


Price  and  Priestley.  Wakefield  would  not  conde- 
scend to  any  connection  with  a  dissenting  society, 
and  his  career  at  Hackney  was  marked  by  arrogant 
airs  towards  Unitarians,  on  account  of  a  university 
training,  then  not  open  to  dissenters.  He  attacked 
Price  and  Priestley,  his  superiors  in  every  respect, 
apart  from  their  venerable  position  and  services, 
in  a  contemptuous  way ;  and,  in  fact,  might  be 
brevetted  a  prig,  with  a  fondness  for  coarse 
phrases,  sometimes  printed  with  blanks.  He  flew 
at  Paine  as  if  he  had  been  waiting  for  him  ;  his 
replies,  not  affecting  any  vital  issue,  were  displays 
of  linguistic  and  textual  learning,  set  forth  on  the 
background  of  Paine's  page,  which  he  black- 
ened. He  exhausts  his  large  vocabulary  of  vilifi- 
cation on  a  book  whose  substantial  affirmations  he 
concedes  ;  and  it  is  done  in  the  mean  way  of  appro- 
priating the  credit  of  Paine's  arguments, 

Gilbert  Wakefield  was  indebted  to  the  excite- 
ment raised  by  Paine  for  the  first  notice  taken  by 
the  general  public  of  anything  he  ever  wrote.  Paine, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  acquainted  with  a 
sort  of  autobiography  which  he  had  published  in 
1 792.  In  this  book  Wakefield  admitted  with  shame 
that  he  had  subscribed  the  Church  formulas  when 
he  did  not  believe  them,  while  indulging  in  flings 
at  Price,  Priestley,  and  others,  who  had  suffered  for 
their  principles.  At  the  same  time  there  were 
some  things  in  Wakefield's  autobiography  which 
could  not  fail  to  attract  Paine  :  it  severely  attacked 
slavery,  and  also  the  whole  course  of  Pitt  towards 
France.  This  was  done  with  talent  and  courage. 
It  was  consequently  a  shock  when  Gilbert  Wake- 


1795] 


I'RIENDSHIPS. 


229 


field's  outrageous  abuse  of  himself  came  to  the 
invahd  in  his  sick-room.  It  appeared  to  be  an 
indication  of  the  extent  to  which  he  was  abandoned 
by  the  EngHshmen  who  had  sympathized  with  his 
poHtical  principles,  and  to  a  large  extent  with  his 
religious  views.  This  acrimonious  repudiation 
added  groans  to  Paine's  sick  and  sinking  heart, 
some  of  which  were  returned  upon  his  Socinian 
assailant,  and  in  kind.  This  private  letter  my 
reader  must  see,  though  it  was  meant  for  no  eye 
but  that  of  Gilbert  Wakefield.  It  is  dated  at 
Paris,  November  19,  1795. 

"  Dear  Sir, — When  you  prudently  chose,  like  a  starved 
apothecary,  to  offer  your  eighteenpenny  antidote  to  those  who 
had  taken  my  two-and-sixpenny  Bible-purge,'  you  forgot  that 
although  my  dose  was  rather  of  the  roughest,  it  might  not  be 
the  less  wholesome  for  possessing  that  drastick  quality  ;  and  if 
I  am  to  judge  of  its  salutary  effects  on  your  infuriate  polemic 
stomach,  by  the  nasty  things  it  has  made  you  bring  away,  I 
think  you  should  be  the  last  man  alive  to  take  your  own 
panacea.  As  to  the  collection  of  words  of  which  you  boast 
the  possession,  nobody,  I  believe,  will  dispute  their  amount,  but 
every  one  who  reads  your  answer  to  my  '  Age  of  Reason  ' 
will  wish  there  were  not  so  many  scurrilous  ones  among  them  ; 
for  though  they  may  be  very  useful!  in  emptying  your  gall- 
bladder they  are  too  apt  to  move  the  bile  of  other  people. 

"  Those  of  Greek  and  Latin  are  rather  foolishly  thrown 
away,  I  think,  on  a  man  like  me,  who,  you  are  pleased  to  say,  is 
'  the  greatest  ignorajiius  in  nature '  .•  yet  I  must  take  the 
liberty  to  tell  you,  that  wisdom  does  not  consist  in  the  mere 
knowledge  of  language,  but  of  things. 

"  You  recommend  me  to  know  tnyself, — a  thing  very  easy  to  ad- 
vise, but  very  difficult  to  practice,  as  I  learn  from  your  own  book  ; 
for  you  take  yourself  to  be  a  meek  disciple  of  Christ,  and  yet 
give  way  to  passion  and  pride  in  every  page  of  its  composition, 

'  These  were  the  actual  prices  of  the  books. 


230  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i795 

'■  You  have  raised  an  ant-hill  about  the  roots  of  my  sturdy 
oak,  and  it  may  amuse  idlers  to  see  your  work  ;  but  neither  its 
body  nor  its  branches  are  injured  by  you  ;  and  I  hope  the  shade 
of  my  Civic  Crown  may  be  able  to  preserve  your  little  contriv- 
ance, at  least  for  the  season. 

"  When  you  have  done  as  much  service  to  the  world  by  your 
writings,  and  suffered  as  much  for  them,  as  I  have  done,  you 
will  be  better  entitled  to  dictate  :  but  although  I  know  you  to 
be  a  keener  politician  than  Paul,  I  can  assure  you,  from  my 
experience  of  mankind,  that  you  do  not  much  commend  the 
Christian  doctrines  to  them  by  announcing  that  it  requires  the 
labour  of  a  learned  life  to  make  them  understood. 

"  May  I  be  permitted,  after  all,  to  suggest  that  your  truly 
vigorous  talents  would  be  best  employed  in  teaching  men  to 
preserve  their  liberties  exclusively, — leaving  to  that  God  who 
made  their  immortal  souls  the  care  of  their  eternal  welfare. 
"  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

"  Your  true  well-wisher, 

"  Tho.  Paine. 

"  To  Gilbert  Wakefield,  A.  B." 

After  a  first  perusal  of  this  letter  has  made  its 
unpleasant  impression,  the  reader  will  do  well  to 
read  it  again.  Paine  has  repaired  to  his  earliest 
Norfolkshire  for  language  appropriate  to  the  coarser 
tongue  of  his  Nottinghamshire  assailant ;  but  it 
should  be  said  that  the  offensive  paragraph,  the 
first,  is  a  travesty  of  one  written  by  Wakefield.  In 
his  autobiography,  after  groaning  over  his  books 
that  found  no  buyers,  a  veritable  "  starved  apothe- 
cary," Wakefield  describes  the  uneasiness  caused 
by  his  pamphlet  on  "  Religious  Worship  "  as  proof 
that  the  disease  was  yielding  to  his  "  potion."  He 
says  that  "  as  a  physician  of  spiritual  maladies" 
he  had  seconded  "  the  favourable  operation  of 
the  first  prescription," — and  so  forth.  Paine,  in 
using  the  simile,  certainly  allows  the  drugs  and 


1795] 


FRIENDSHIPS. 


231 


]phials  of  his  sick-room  to  enter  it  to  a  disagreeable 
extent,  but  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  we  are 
looking  over  his  shoulder.  We  must  also,  by  the 
same  consideration  of  its  privacy,  mitigate  the 
letter's  egotism.  Wakefield's  ant-hill  protected 
by  the  foliage,  the  "  civic  crown,"  of  Paine's  oak 
which  it  has  attacked, — gaining  notice  by  the  im- 
portance of  the  work  it  belittles, — were  admirable 
if  written  by  another  ;  and  the  egotism  is  not  with- 
out some  warrant.  It  is  the  rebuke  of  a  scarred 
veteran  of  the  liberal  army  to  the  insults  of  a  sub- 
altern near  twenty  years  his  junior.  It  was  no 
doubt  taken  to  heart.  For  when  the  agitation  which 
Gilbert  Wakefield  had  contributed  to  swell,  and 
to  lower,  presently  culminated  in  handcuffs  for  the 
circulators  of  Paine's  works,  he  was  filled  with 
anguish.  He  vainly  tried  to  resist  the  oppression, 
and  to  call  back  the  Unitarians,  who  for  twenty-five 
years  continued  to  draw  attention  from  their  own 
heresies  by  hounding  on  the  prosecution  of  Paine's 
adherents.'    The  prig  perished  ;  in  his  place  stood 

'  "But  I  would  not  forcibly  suppress  this  book  ["Age  of  Reason"]  ; 
much  less  would  I  punish  (O  my  God,  be  such  wickedness  far  from  me,  or 
leave  me  destitute  of  thy  favour  in  the  midst  of  this  perjured  and  sanguinary 
generation  !)  much  less  would  I  punish,  by  fine  or  imprisonment,  from  any 
possible  consideration,  the  publisher  or  author  of  these  pages." — Letter  of 
Gilbert  Wakefield  to  Sir  John  Scott,  Attorney  General,  1798.  For 
evidence  of  Unitarian  intolerance  see  the  discourse  of  W.  J.  Fox  on  "  The 
Duties  of  Christians  towards  Deists"  (Collected  Works,  vol.  i.).  In  this 
discourse,  October  24,  1819,  on  the  prosecution  of  Carlile  for  publishing  the 
"  Age  of  Reason,"  Mr.  Fox  expresses  his  regret  that  the  first  prosecution 
should  have  been  conducted  by  a  Unitarian.  "  Goaded,"  he  says,  "  by  the 
calumny  which  would  identify  them  with  those  who  yet  reject  the  Saviour, 
they  have,  in  repelling  so  unjust  an  accusation,  caught  too  much  of  the  tone 
of  their  opponents,  and  given  the  most  undesirable  proof  of  their  affinity  to 
other  Christians  by  that  unfairness  towards  the  disbeliever  which  does  not 
become  any  Christian."  Ultimately  Mr.  Fox  became  the  champion  of  all 
the  principles  of  "  The  Age  of  Reason  "  and  "  The  Rights  of  Man." 


232 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


a  martyr  of  the  freedom  bound  up  with  the  work 
he  had  assailed.  Paine's  other  assailant,  the 
Bishop  of  Llandaff,  having  bent  before  Pitt,  and 
episcopally  censured  the  humane  side  he  once 
espoused,  Gilbert  Wakefield  answered  him  with 
a  boldness  that  brought  on  him  two  years' 
imprisonment.  When  he  came  out  of  prison 
(1801)  he  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  all  of 
Paine's  friends,  who  had  forgotten  the  wrong 
so  bravely  atoned  for.  Had  he  not  died  in 
the  same  year,  at  the  age  of  forty-five,  Gilbert 
Wakefield  might  have  become  a  standard-bearer 
of  the  freethinkers. 

Paine's  recovery  after  such  prolonged  and  peril- 
ous suffering  was  a  sort  of  resurrection.  In  April 
(1796)  he  leaves  Monroe's  house  for  the  country, 
and  with  the  returning  life  of  nature  his  strength  is 
steadily  recovered.  What  to  the  man  whose  years 
of  anguish,  imprisonment,  disease,  at  last  pass 
away,  must  have  been  the  paths  and  hedgerows  of 
Versailles,  where  he  now  meets  the  springtide,  and 
the  more  healing  sunshine  of  affection  !  Risen 
from  his  thorny  bed  of  pain — 

"  The  meanest  floweret  of  the  vale, 
The  simplest  note  that  swells  the  gale, 
The  common  sun,  the  air,  the  skies. 
To  him  are  opening  paradise." 

So  had  it  been  even  if  nature  alone  had  sur- 
rounded him.  But  Paine  had  been  restored  by 
the  tenderness  and  devotion  of  friends.  Had  it 
not  been  for  friendship  he  could  hardly  have  been 
saved.    We  are  little  able,  in  the  present  day,  to 


1796] 


FRIENDSHIPS. 


233 


Appreciate  the  reverence  and  affection  with  which 
Thomas  Paine  was  regarded  by  those  who  saw  in 
him  the  greatest  apostle  of  liberty  in  the  world. 
Elihu  Palmer  spoke  a  very  general  belief  when  he 
declared  Paine  "  probably  the  most  useful  man 
that  ever  existed  upon  the  face  of  the  earth."  This 
may  sound  wild  enough  on  the  ears  of  those  to 
whom  Liberty  has  become  a  familiar  drudge.  There 
was  a  time  when  she  was  an  ideal  Rachel,  to  win 
whom  many  years  of  terrible  service  were  not  too 
much  ;  but  now  in  the  garish  day  she  is  our  prosaic 
Leah, — a  serviceable  creature  in  her  way,  but  quite 
unromantic.  In  Paris  there  were  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen who  had  known  something  of  the  cost  of 
Liberty, — Colonel  and  Mrs.  Monroe,  Sir  Robert 
and  Lady  Smith,  Madame  Lafayette,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Barlow,  M.  and  Madame  De  Bonneville.  They 
had  known  what  it  was  to  watch  through  anxious 
nights  with  terrors  surrounding  them.  He  who 
had  sufTered  most  was  to  them  a  sacred  person. 
He  had  come  out  of  the  succession  of  ordeals,  so 
weak  in  body,  so  wounded  by  American  ingrati- 
tude, so  sore  at  heart,  that  no  delicate  child  needed 
more  tender  care.  Set  those  ladies  and  their 
charge  a  thousand  years  back  in  the  poetic  past, 
and  they  become  Morgan  le  Fay,  and  the  Lady 
Nimue,  who  bear  the  wounded  warrior  away  to 
their  Avalon,  there  to  be  healed  of  his  grievous 
hurts.  Men  say  their  Arthur  is  dead,  but  their 
love  is  stronger  than  death.  And  though  the 
service  of  these  friends  might  at  first  have  been 
reverential,  it  had  ended  with  attachment,  so  great 
was  Paine's  power,  so  wonderful  and  pathetic  his 


234 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


memories,  so  charming  the  play  of  his  wit,  so  full 
his  response  to  kindness. 

One  especially  great  happiness  awaited  him 
when  he  became  convalescent.  Sir  Robert  Smith, 
a  wealthy  banker  in  Paris,  made  his  acquaintance, 
and  he  discovered  that  Lady  Smith  was  no  other 
than  "  The  Little  Corner  of  the  World,"  whose 
letters  had  carried  sunbeams  into  his  prison.^  An 
intimate  friendship  was  at  once  established  with 
Sir  Robert  and  his  lady,  in  whose  house,  probably 
at  Versailles,  Paine  was  a  guest  after  leaving  the 
Monroes.  To  Lady  Smith,  on  discovering  her, 
Paine  addressed  a  poem, — "  The  Castle  in  the  Air 
to  the  Little  Corner  of  the  World  "  : 

"  In  the  region  of  clouds,  where  the  whirlwinds  arise, 
My  Castle  of  Fancy  was  built  ; 
The  turrets  reflected  the  blue  from  the  skies, 
And  the  windows  with  sunbeams  were  gilt. 

"  The  rainbow  sometimes,  in  its  beautiful  state. 
Enamelled  the  mansion  around  ; 
And  the  figures  that  fancy  in  clouds  can  create 
Supplied  me  with  gardens  and  ground. 

"  I  had  grottos,  and  fountains,  and  orange-tree  groves, 
I  had  all  that  enchantment  has  told  ; 
I  had  sweet  shady  walks  for  the  gods  and  their  loves, 
I  had  mountains  of  coral  and  gold. 

"  But  a  storm  that  I  felt  not  had  risen  and  rolled, 
While  wrapped  in  a  slumber  I  lay  ; 
And  when  I  looked  out  in  the  morning,  behold, 
My  Castle  was  carried  away. 

'  Sir  Robert  Smith  (Smythe  in  the  Peerage  List)  was  born  in  1744,  and 
married,  first,  Miss  Blake  of  London  (1776).  The  name  of  the  second 
Lady  Smith,  Paine's  friend,  before  her  marriage  I  have  not  ascertained. 


1796]  FRIENDSHIPS.  235 

"  It  passed  over  rivers  and  valleys  and  groves, 
The  world  it  was  all  in  my  view  ; 
I  thought  of  my  friends,  of  their  fates,  of  their  loves, 
And  often,  full  often,  of  you. 

"  At  length  it  came  over  a  beautiful  scene, 
That  nature  in  silence  had  made  ; 
The  place  was  but  small,  but 't  was  sweetly  serene, 
And  chequered  with  sunshine  and  shade. 

"  I  gazed  and  I  envied  with  painful  good  will, 
And  grew  tired  of  my  seat  in  the  air  ; 
When  all  of  a  sudden  my  Castle  stood  still. 
As  if  some  attraction  were  there. 

"  Like  a  lark  from  the  sky  it  came  fluttering  down, 
And  placed  me  exactly  in  view. 
When  whom  should  I  meet  in  this  charming  retreat, 
This  corner  of  calmness,  but — you. 

"  Delighted  to  find  you  in  honour  and  ease, 
I  felt  no  more  sorrow  nor  pain  ; 
But  the  wind  coming  fair,  I  ascended  the  breeze, 
And  went  back  with  my  Castle  again." 

Paine  was  now  a  happy  man.  The  kindness 
that  rescued  him  from  death  was  followed  by  the 
friendship  that  beguiled  him  from  horrors  of  the 
past.  From  gentle  ladies  he  learned  that  beyond 
the  Age  of  Reason  lay  the  forces  that  defeat  Giant 
Despair. 

"  To  reason  [so  he  writes  to  Lady  Smith]  against  feelings  is 
as  vain  as  to  reason  against  fire  :  it  serves  only  to  torture  the 
torture,  by  adding  reproach  to  horror.  All  reasoning  with 
ourselves  in  such  cases  acts  upon  us  like  the  reasoning  of 
another  person,  which,  however  kindly  done,  serves  but  to 
insult  the  misery  we  suffer.  If  Reason  could  remove  the 
pain,  Reason  would  have  prevented  it.    If  she  could  not  do 


236  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i79<> 

the  one,  how  is  she  to  perform  the  other  ?  In  all  such  cases 
we  must  look  upon  Reason  as  dispossessed  of  her  empire,  by 
a  revolt  of  the  mind.  She  retires  to  a  distance  to  weep,  and 
the  ebony  sceptre  of  Despair  rules  alone.  All  that  Reason 
can  do  is  to  suggest,  to  hint  a  thought,  to  signify  a  wish,  to 
cast  now  and  then  a  kind  of  bewailing  look,  to  hold  up,  when 
she  can  catch  the  eye,  the  miniature  shaded  portrait  of  Hope  ; 
and  though  dethroned,  and  can  dictate  no  more,  to  wait  upon 
us  in  the  humble  station  of  a  handmaid." 

The  mouth  of  the  rescued  and  restored  captive 
was  filled  with  song.  Several  little  poems  were 
circulated  among  his  friends,  but  not  printed ; 
among  them  the  following  : 

"  Contentment  ;  or,  if  you  please.  Confession.  To 
Mrs.  Barlow^  on  her  pleasantly  telling  the  author  that,  after 
writing  against  the  superstition  of  the  Scripture  religion,  he  was 
setting  up  a  religion  capable  of  more  bigotry  and  enthusiasm,  and 
more  dangerous  to  its  votaries — that  of  making  a  religion  of  Love, 

"  O  could  we  always  live  and  love. 
And  always  be  sincere, 
I  would  not  wish  for  heaven  above, 
My  heaven  would  be  here. 

I 

"  Though  many  countries  I  have  seen, 
And  more  may  chance  to  see, 
My  Little  Corner  of  the  World 
Is  half  the  world  to  me. 

"  The  other  half,  as  you  may  guess, 
America  contains  ; 
And  thus,  between  them,  I  possess 
The  whole  world  for  my  pains. 

"  I 'm  then  contented  with  my  lot, 
I  can  no  happier  be  ; 
For  neither  world  I 'm  sure  has  got 
So  rich  a  man  as  me. 


FRIENDSHIPS. 


"  Then  send  no  fiery  chariot  down 
To  take  me  off  from  hence, 
But  leave  me  on  my  heavenly  ground — 
This  prayer  is  common  sense. 

"  Let  others  choose  another  plan, 
I  mean  no  fault  to  find  ; 
The  true  theology  of  man 
Is  happiness  of  mind." 

Paine  gained  great  favor  with  the  French  gov- 
ernment and  fame  throughout  Europe  by  his 
pamphlet,  "The  DecHne  and  Fall  of  the  English 
System  of  Finance,"  in  which  he  predicted  the  sus- 
pension of  the  Bank  of  England,  which  followed 
the  next  year.  He  dated  the  pamphlet  April  8th, 
and  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  is  shown,  in 
the  Archives  of  that  office,  to  have  ordered,  on 
April  27th,  a  thousand  copies.  It  was  translated 
in  all  the  languages  of  Europe,  and  was  a  terrible 
retribution  for  the  forged  assignats  whose  distribu- 
tion in  France  the  English  government  had  con- 
sidered a  fair  mode  of  warfare.  This  translation 
"  into  all  the  languages  of  the  continent "  is  men- 
tioned by  Ralph  Broome,  to  whom  the  British 
government  entrusted  the  task  of  answering  the 
pamphlet.'  As  Broome's  answer  is  dated  June  4th, 
this  circulation  in  six  or  seven  weeks  is  remarkable. 
The  proceeds  were  devoted  by  Paine  to  the  relief 
of  prisoners  for  debt  in  Newgate,  London.^ 

'  "  Observations  on  Mr.  Paine's  Pamphlet,"  etc.  Broome  escapes  the 
charge  of  prejudice  by  speaking  of  "  Mr.  Paine,  whose  abilities  I  admire 
and  deprecate  in  a  breath."  Paine's  pamphlet  was  also  replied  to  by 
George  Chalmers  ("Oldys")  who  had  written  the  slanderous  biography. 

'  Richard  Carlile's  sketch  of  Paine,  p.  20.  This  large  generosity  to  Eng- 
lish sufferers  appears  the  more  characteristic  beside  the  closing  paragraph  of 


238 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1796 


The  concentration  of  this  pamphlet  on  its  imme- 
diate subject,  which  made  it  so  effective,  renders  it 
of  too  Httle  intrinsic  interest  in  the  present  day  to 
delay  us  long,  especially  as  it  is  included  in  all 
editions  of  Paine's  works.  It  possesses,  however, 
much  biographical  interest  as  proving  the  intellec- 
tual power  of  Paine  while  still  but  a  convalescent. 
He  never  wrote  any  work  involving  more  study 
and  mastery  of  difficult  details.  It  was  this  pam- 
phlet, written  in  Paris,  while  "  Peter  Porcupine," 
in  America,  was  rewriting  the  slanders  of  "  Oldys," 
which  revolutionized  Cobbett's  opinion  of  Paine, 
and  led  him  to  try  and  undo  the  injustice  he  had 
wrought. 

It  now  so  turned  out  that  Paine  was  able  to 
repay  all  the  kindnesses  he  had  received.  The 
relations  between  the  French  government  and 
Monroe,  already  strained,  as  we  have  seen,  became 
in  the  spring  of  1 796  almost  intolerable.  The  Jay 
treaty  seemed  to  the  French  so  incredible  that, 
even  after  it  was  ratified,  they  believed  that  the 
Representatives  would  refuse  the  appropriation 
needed  for  its  execution.  But  when  tidings  came 
that  this  effort  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
had  been  crushed  by  a  menaced  coup  d'etat,  the 
ideal  America  fell  in  France,  and  was  broken  in 

Paine's  pamphlet,  "  As  an  individual  citizen  of  America,  and  as  far  as  an 
individual  can  go,  I  have  revenged  (if  I  may  use  the  expression  without  any 
immoral  meaning)  the  piratical  depredations  committed  on  American  com- 
merce by  the  English  government.  I  have  retaliated  for  France  on  the 
subject  of  finance  :  and  I  conclude  with  retorting  on  Mr.  Pitt  the  expression 
he  used  against  France,  and  say,  that  the  English  system  of  finance  '  is  on 
the  verge,  nay  even  in  the  gulf  of  bankruptcy.'  " 

Concerning  the  false  French  assignats  forged  in  England,  see  Louis 
Blanc's  "  History  of  the  Revolution,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  loi. 


1796]  FRIENDSHIPS.  239 

fragments.  Monroe  could  now  hardly  have  re- 
mained save  on  the  credit  of  Paine  with  the 
French.  There  was,  of  course,  a  fresh  accession 
of  wrath  towards  England  for  this  appropriation 
of  the  French  alliance.  Paine  had  been  only  the 
first  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  the  new  alliance ;  now 
all  Enelish  families  and  all  Americans  in  Paris 
except  himself  were  likely  to  become  its  victims. 
The  English-speaking  residents  there  made  one 
little  colony,  and  Paine  was  sponsor  for  them  all. 
His  fatal  blow  at  English  credit  proved  the  formid- 
able power  of  the  man  whom  Washington  had 
delivered  up  to  Robespierre  in  the  interest  of  Pitt. 
So  Paine's  popularity  reached  its  climax  ;  the 
American  Legation  found  through  him  a  jnodzis 
Vivendi  with  the  French  government  ;  the  families 
which  had  received  and  nursed  him  in  his  weak- 
ness found  in  his  intimacy  their  best  credential. 
Mrs.  Joel  Barlow  especially,  while  her  husband  was 
in  Algeria,  on  the  service  of  the  American  govern- 
ment, might  have  found  her  stay  in  Paris  unpleas- 
ant but  for  Paine's  friendship.  The  importance  of 
his  guarantee  to  the  banker,  Sir  Robert  Smith, 
appears  by  the  following  note,  written  at  Versailles, 
August  13th  : 

"  Citizen  Minister  :  The  citizen  Robert  Smith,  a  very- 
particular  friend  of  mine,  wishes  to  obtain  a  passport  to  go  to 
Hamburg,  and  I  will  be  obliged  to  you  to  do  him  that  favor. 
Himself  and  family  have  lived  several  years  in  France,  for  he 
likes  neither  the  government  nor  the  climate  of  England.  He 
has  large  property  in  England,  but  his  Banker  in  that  country 
has  refused  sending  him  remittances.  This  makes  it  necessary 
for  him  to  go  to  Hamburg,  because  from  there  he  can  draw 


240 


THE  I.TFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


his  money  out  of  his  Banker's  hands,  which  he  cannot  do 
whilst  in  France.  His  family  remains  in  France — Salut  et 
fraternitL 

"  Thomas  Paine."  ' 

Amid  his  circle  of  cultured  and  kindly  friends 
Paine  had  dreamed  of  a  lifting  of  the  last  cloud 
from  his  life,  so  long  overcast.  His  eyes  were 
strained  to  greet  that  shining  sail  that  should  bring 
him  a  response  to  his  letter  of  September  to  Wash- 
ington, in  his  heart  being  a  great  hope  that  his 
apparent  wrong  would  be  explained  as  a  miserable 
mistake,  and  that  old  friendship  restored.  As 
the  reader  knows,  the  hope  was  grievously  disap- 
pointed. The  famous  public  letter  to  Washington 
(August  3d),  which  was  not  published  in  France, 
has  already  been  considered,  in  advance  of  its 
chronological  place.  It  will  be  found,  however,  of 
more  significance  if  read  in  connection  with  the 
unhappy  situation,  in  which  all  of  Paine's  friends, 
and  all  Americans  in  Paris,  had  been  brought  by 
the  Jay  treaty.  From  their  point  of  view  the  de- 
liverance of  Paine  to  prison  and  the  guillotine  was 
only  one  incident  in  a  long-planned  and  systematic 
treason,  aimed  at  the  life  of  the  French  republic. 
Jefferson  in  America,  and  Paine  in  France,  repre- 
sented the  faith  and  hope  of  republicans  that  the 
treason  would  be  overtaken  by  retribution  and 
reversal. 

'  Soon  after  Jefferson  became  President  Paine  wrote  to  him,  suggesting 
that  Sir  Robert's  firm  might  be  safely  depended  on  as  the  medium  of  Amer- 
ican financial  transactions  in  Europe. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THEOPHILANTHROPY. 

In  the  ever-recurring  controversies  concerning 
Paine  and  his  "  Agfe  of  Reason  "  we  have  heard 
many  triumphal  claims.  Christianity  and  the 
Church,  it  is  said,  have  advanced  and  expanded, 
unharmed  by  such  criticisms.  This  is  true.  But 
there  are  several  fallacies  implied  in  this  mode  of 
dealing  with  the  religious  movement  caused  by 
Paine's  work.  It  assumes  that  Paine  was  an  enemy 
of  all  that  now  passes  under  the  name  of  Christian- 
ity— a  title  claimed  by  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty 
different  organizations,  with  some  of  which  (as  the 
Unitarians,  Universalists,  Broad  Church,  and  Hick- 
site  Friends)  he  would  largely  sympathize.  It  fur- 
ther assumes  that  he  was  hostile  to  all  churches, 
and  desired  or  anticipated  their  destruction.  Such 
is  not  the  fact.  Paine  desired  and  anticipated  their 
reformation,  which  has  steadily  progressed.  At  the 
close  of  the  "Age  of  Reason"  he  exhorts  the  clergy 
to  "  preach  something  that  is  edifying,  and  from 
texts  that  are  known  to  be  true." 

"  The  Bible  of  the  creation  is  inexhaustible  in  texts.  Every 
part  of  science,  whether  connected  with  the  geometry  of  the 
universe,  with  the  systems  of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  or  with 
the  properties  of  inanimate  matter,  is  a  text  for  devotion  as 
well  as  for  philosophy — for  gratitude  as  for  human  improve- 

YoL.  II.— 16  241 


242 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


ment.  It  will  perhaps  be  said,  that,  if  such  a  revolution  in  the 
system  of  religion  takes  place,  every  preacher  ought  to  be  a 
philosopher.  Most  certainly.  And  every  house  of  devotion  a 
school  of  science.  It  has  been  by  wandering  from  the  immut- 
able laws  of  science,  and  the  right  use  of  reason,  and  setting 
up  an  invented  thing  called  revealed  religion,  that  so  many 
wild  and  blasphemous  conceits  nave  been  formed  of  the  Al- 
mighty. The  Jews  have  made  him  the  assassin  of  the  human 
species,  to  make  room  for  the  religion  of  the  Jews.  The 
Christians  have  made  him  the  murderer  of  himself,  and  the 
founder  of  a  new  religion,  to  shpersede  and  expel  the  Jewish 
religion.  And  to  find  pretence  and  admission  for  these  things 
they  must  have  supposed  his  power  and  his  wisdom  imperfect, 
or  his  will  changeable  ;  and  the  changeableness  of  the  will  is 
the  imperfection  of  the  judgment.  The  philosopher  knows 
that  the  laws  of  the  Creator  have  never  changed  with  respect 
either  to  the  principles  of  science,  or  the  properties  of  matter. 
Why  then  is  it  to  be  supposed  they  have  changed  with  respect 
to  man  ?  " 

To  the  statement  that  Christianity  has  not  been 
impeded  by  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  it  should  be 
added  that  its  advance  has  been  largely  due  to 
modifications  rendered  necessary  by  that  work. 
The  unmodified  dogmas  are  represented  in  small 
and  eccentric  communities.  The  advance  has  been 
under  the  Christian  name,  with  which  Paine  had  no 
concern  ;  but  to  confuse  the  word  "  Christianity  " 
with  the  substance  it  labels  is  inadmissible.  Eng- 
land wears  the  device  of  St.  George  and  the  Dragon  ; 
but  English  culture  has  reduced  the  saint  and 
dragon  to  a  fable. 

The  special  wrath  with  which  Paine  is  still  visited, 
above  all  other  deists  put  together,  or  even  atheists, 
is  a  tradition  from  a  so-called  Christianity  which  his 
work  compelled  to  capitulate.    That  system  is  now 


1796] 


THEOPHILANTHROP  Y. 


243 


nearly  extinct,  and  the  vendetta  it  bequeathed  should 
now  end.  The  capitulation  began  immediately  with 
the  publication  of  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff's  "  Apol- 
ogy for  the  Bible,"  a  title  that  did  not  fail  to  attract 
notice  when  it  appeared  (1796).  There  were  more 
than  thirty  replies  to  Paine,  but  they  are  mainly 
taken  out  of  the  Bishop's  "  Apology,"  to  which  they 
add  nothing.  It  is  said  in  religious  encyclopedias 
that  Paine  was  "  answered  "  by  one  and  another 
writer,  but  in  a  strict  sense  Paine  was  never  an- 
swered, unless  by  the  successive  surrenders  referred 
to.  As  Bishop  Watson's  "  Apology  "  is  adopted 
by  most  authorities  as  the  sufficient  "  answer,"  it 
may  be  here  accepted  as  a  representative  of  the 
rest.  Whether  Paine's  points  dealt  with  by  the 
Bishop  are  answerable  or  not,  the  following  facts 
will  prove  how  uncritical  is  the  prevalent  opinion 
that  they  were  really  answered. 

Dr.  Watson  concedes  generally  to  Paine  the  dis- 
covery of  some  "  real  difificulties  "  in  the  Old  Test- 
ament, and  the  exposure,  in  the  Christian  grove,  of 
"  a  few  unsightly  shrubs,  which  good  men  had  wisely 
concealed  from  public  view  "  (p.  44)."  It  is  not 
Paine  that  here  calls  some  "  sacred  "  things  un- 
sightly, and  charges  the  clergy  with  concealing 
them — it  is  the  Bishop.  Among  the  particular  and 
direct  concessions  made  by  the  Bishop  are  the  fol- 
lowing : 

I.  That  Moses  may  not  have  written  every  part 
of  the  Pentateuch.  Some  passages  were  probably 
written  by  later  hands,  transcribers  or  editors  (pp. 


'  Carey's  edition,  Philadelphia,  1796. 


244 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1796 


9-1 1,  15).  [If  human  reason  and  scholarship  are 
admitted  to  detach  any  portions,  by  what  authority 
can  they  be  denied  the  right  to  bring  all  parts  of 
the  Pentateuch,  or  even  the  whole  Bible,  under 
their  human  judgment  ?] 

2.  The  law  in  Deuteronomy  giving  parents  the 
right,  under  certain  circumstances,  to  have  their 
children  stoned  to  death,  is  excused  only  as  a  "  hu- 
mane restriction  of  a  power  improper  to  be  lodged 
with  any  parent"  (p.  13).  [Granting  the  Bishop's 
untrue  assertion,  that  the  same  "  improper"  power 
was  arbitrary  among  the  Romans,  Gauls,  and  Per- 
sians, why  should  it  not  have  been  abolished  in  Is- 
rael ?  And  if  Dr.  Watson  possessed  the  right  to 
call  any  law  established  in  the  Bible  "  improper," 
how  can  Paine  be  denounced  for  subjecting  other 
things  in  the  book  to  moral  condemnation  ?  The 
moral  sentiment  is  not  an  episcopal  prerogative.] 

3.  The  Bishop  agrees  that  it  is  "  the  opinion  of 
many  learned  men  and  good  Christians  "  that  the 
Bible,  though  authoritative  in  religion,  is  fallible  in 
other  respects,  "  relating  the  ordinary  history  of 
the  times  "  (p.  23).  [What  but  human  reason,  in 
the  absence  of  papal  authority,  is  to  draw  the  line 
between  the  historical  and  religious  elements  in  the 
Bible  ?] 

4.  It  is  conceded  that  "Samuel  did  not  write  any 
part  of  the  second  book  bearing  his  name,  and  only 
a  part  of  the  first "  (p.  24).  [One  of  many  blows 
dealt  by  this  prelate  at  confidence  in  the  Bible,] 

5.  It  is  admitted  that  Ezra  contains  a  contradic- 
tion in  the  estimate  of  the  numbers  who  returned 
from  Babylon  ;  it  is  attributed  to  a  transcriber's 


1796]  THEOPIIILA N  THROP  Y.  24 5 

mistake  of  one  Hebrew  figure  for  another  (p.  30). 
[Paine's  question  here  had  been  :  "  What  certainty 
then  can  there  be  in  the  Bible  for  anything-"  ?  It 
is  no  answer  to  tell  him  how  an  error  involving  a 
difference  of  12,542  people  may  perhaps  have  oc- 
curred.] 

5.  It  is  admitted  that  David  did  not  write  some 
of  the  Psalms  ascribed  to  him  (p.  131). 

7.  "It  is  acknowledged  that  the  order  of  time  is 
not  everywhere  observed"  [in  Jeremiah]  ;  also  that 
this  prophet,  fearing  for  his  life,  suppressed  the 
truth  [as  directed  by  King  Zedekiah].  "  He  was 
under  no  obligation  to  tell  the  whole  [truth]  to 
men  who  were  certainly  his  enemies  and  no  good 
subjects  of  the  king"  (pp.  36,  37).  [But  how  can 
it  be  determined  how  much  in  Jeremiah  is  the 
"  word  of  God,"  and  how  much  uttered  for  the 
casual  advantage  of  himself  or  his  king  ?] 

8.  It  is  admitted  that  there  was  no  actual  fulfil- 
ment of  Ezekiel's  prophecy,  "  No  foot  of  man  shall 
pass  through  it  [Egypt],  nor  foot  of  beast  shall 
pass  through  it,  for  forty  years  "  (p.  42). 

9.  The  discrepancies  between  the  genealogies  of 
Christ,  in  Matthew  and  Luke,  are  admitted  :  they 
are  explained  by  saying  that  Matthew  gives  the 
genealogy  of  Joseph,  and  Luke  that  of  Mary  ;  and 
that  Matthew  commits  "  an  error  "  in  omitting  three 
generations  between  Joram  and  Ozias  (p.  48.) 
[Paine  had  asked,  why  might  not  writers  mistaken 
in  the  natural  genealogy  of  Christ  be  mistaken  also 
in  his  celestial  genealogy  ?  To  this  no  answer  was 
attempted.] 

Such  are  some  of  the  Bishop's  direct  admissions. 


246 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


There  are  other  admissions  in  his  silences  and  eva- 
sions. For  instance,  having  elaborated  a  theory  as 
to  how  the  error  in  Ezra  might  occur,  by  the  close 
resemblance  of  Hebrew  letters  representing  widely 
different  numbers,  he  does  not  notice  Nehemiah's 
error  in  the  same  matter,  pointed  out  by  Paine, — 
a  self-contradiction,  and  also  a  discrepancy  with 
Ezra,  which  could  not  be  explained  by  his  theory. 
He  says  nothing  about  several  other  contradictions 
alluded  to  by  Paine.  The  Bishop's  evasions  are 
sometimes  painful,  as  when  he  tries  to  escape  the 
force  of  Paine's  argument,  that  Paul  himself  was 
not  convinced  by  the  evidences  of  the  resurrection 
which  he  adduces  for  others.  The  Bishop  says  : 
"  That  Paul  had  so  far  resisted  the  evidence  which 
the  apostles  had  given  of  the  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  Jesus,  as  to  be  a  persecutor  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  Christ,  is  certain  ;  but  I  do  not  remember 
the  place  where  he  declares  that  he  had  not  believed 
them."  But  when  Paul  says,  "  I  verily  thought 
with  myself  that  I  ought  to  do  many  things  con- 
trary to  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  surely 
this  is  inconsistent  with  his  belief  in  the  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension.  Paul  declares  that  when  it 
was  the  good  pleasure  of  God  "to  reveal  his  Son 
in  me,"  immediately  he  entered  on  his  mission. 
He  "  was  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision." 
Clearly  then  Paul  had  not  been  convinced  of  the 
resurrection  and  ascension  until  he  saw  Christ  in  a 
vision. 

In  dealing  with  Paine's  moral  charges  against 
the  Bible  the  Bishop  has  left  a  confirmation  of  all 
that  I  have  said  concerning  the  Christianity  of  his 


1796] 


THEOPHILANTITROP  Y. 


247 


time.  An  "  infidel  "  of  to-day  could  need  no  better 
moral  arguments  against  the  Bible  than  those 
framed  by  the  Bishop  in  its  defence.  He  justifies 
the  massacre  of  the  Canaanites  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  sacrificers  of  their  own  children  to  idols, 
cannibals,  addicted  to  unnatural  lust.  Were  this 
true  it  would  be  no  justification  ;  but  as  no  particle 
of  evidence  is  adduced  in  support  of  these  utterly 
unwarranted  and  entirely  fictitious  accusations,  the 
argument  now  leaves  the  massacre  without  any 
excuse  at  all.  The  extermination  is  not  in  the 
Bible  based  on  any  such  considerations,  but  simply 
on  a  divine  command  to  seize  the  land  and  slay  its 
inhabitants.  No  legal  right  to  the  land  is  sug- 
gested in  the  record  ;  and,  as  for  morality,  the  only 
persons  spared  in  Joshua's  expedition  were  a  harlot 
and  her  household,  she  having  betrayed  her  coun- 
try to  the  invaders,  to  be  afterwards  exalted  into 
an  ancestress  of  Christ.  Of  the  cities  destroyed  by 
Joshua  it  is  said  :  "It  was  of  Jehovah  to  harden 
their  hearts,  to  come  against  Israel  in  battle,  that 
he  might  utterly  destroy  them,  that  they  might  have 
no  favor,  but  that  he  might  destroy  them,  as 
Jehovah  commanded  Moses"  (Joshua  xi.,  20).  As 
their  hearts  were  thus  in  Jehovah's  power  for 
hardening,  it  may  be  inferred  that  they  were 
equally  in  his  power  for  reformation,  had  they 
been  guilty  of  the  things  alleged  by  the  Bishop. 
With  these  things  before  him,  and  the  selection  of 
Rahab  for  mercy  above  all  the  women  in  Jericho — 
every  woman  slain  save  the  harlot  who  delivered 
them  up  to  slaughter — the  Bishop  says  :  "  The  de- 
struction of  the  Canaanites  exhibits  to  all  nations, 


248 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


in  all  ages,  a  signal  proof  of  God's  displeasure 
against  sin." 

The  Bishop  rages  against  Paine  for  supposing 
that  the  commanded  preservation  of  the  Midianite 
maidens,  when  all  males  and  married  women  were 
slain,  was  for  their  "  debauchery." 

"  Prove  this,  and  I  will  allow  that  Moses  was  the  horrid 
monster  you  make  him — prove  this,  and  I  will  allow  that  the 
Bible  is  what  you  call  it — *  a  book  of  lies,  wickedness,  and 
blasphemy ' — prove  this,  or  excuse  my  warmth  if  I  say  to  you, 
as  Paul  said  to  Elymas  the  sorcerer,  who  sought  to  turn  away 
Sergius  Paulus  from  the  faith,  '  O  full  of  all  subtilty,  and  of  all 
mischief,  thou  child  of  the  devil,  thou  enemy  of  all  righteous- 
ness, wilt  thou  not  cease  to  pervert  the  right  ways  of  the 
Lord  ? ' — I  did  not,  when  I  began  these  letters,  think  that  I 
should  have  been  moved  to  this  severity  of  rebuke,  by  any- 
thing you  could  have  written  ;  but  when  so  gross  a  misrepre- 
sentation is  made  of  God's  proceedings,  coolness  would  be  a 
crime." 

And  what  does  my  reader  suppose  is  the  alterna- 
tive claimed  by  the  prelate's  foaming  mouth  ?  The 
maidens,  he  declares,  were  not  reserved  for  debauch- 
ery, but  for  slavery  ! 

Little  did  the  Bishop  foresee  a  time  when,  of 
the  two  suppositions,  Paine's  might  be  deemed  the 
more  lenient.  The  subject  of  slavery  was  then 
under  discussion  in  England,  and  the  Bishop  is 
constrained  to  add,  concerning  this  enslavement  of 
thirty-two  thousand  maidens,  from  the  massacred 
families,  that  slavery  is  "  a  custom  abhorrent  from 
our  manners,  but  everywhere  practised  in  for- 
mer times,  and  still  practised  in  countries  where 
the  benignity  of  the  Christian  religion  has  not 
softened  the  ferocity  of  human  nature."  Thus, 
Jehovah  is  represented  as  not  only  ordering  the 


1 796  J  THEOPHILANTHROPY.  249 

wholesale  murder  of  the  worshippers  of  another 
deity,  but  an  adoption  of  their  "abhorrent"  and 
inhuman  customs. 

This  connection  of  the  deity  of  the  Bible  with 
"the  ferocity  of  human  nature"  in  one  place,  and 
its  softening  in  another,  justified  Paine's  solemn 
rebuke  to  the  clergy  of  his  time. 

"  Had  the  cruel  and  murderous  orders  with  which  the  Bible 
is  filled,  and  the  numberless  torturing  executions  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  in  consequence  of  those  orders,  been 
ascribed  to  some  friend  whose  memory  you  revered,  you 
would  have  glowed  with  satisfaction  at  detecting  the  false- 
hood of  the  charge,  and  gloried  in  defending  his  injured  fame. 
It  is  because  ye  are  sunk  in  the  cruelty  of  superstition,  or  feel 
no  interest  in  the  honor  of  your  Creator,  that  ye  listen  to  the 
horrid  tales  of  the  Bible,  or  hear  them  with  callous  indif- 
ference." 

This  is  fundamentally  what  the  Bishop  has  to 
answer,  and  of  course  he  must  resort  to  the  terrible 
Tu  quoqtte  of  Bishop  Butler.  Dr.  Watson  says  he 
is  astonished  that  "  so  acute  a  reasoner "  should 
reproduce  the  argument. 

"  You  profess  yourself  to  be  a  deist,  and  to  believe  that 
there  is  a  God,  who  created  the  universe,  and  established  the 
laws  of  nature,  by  which  it  is  sustained  in  existence.  You 
profess  that  from  a  contemplation  of  the  works  of  God  you 
derive  a  knowledge  of  his  attributes  ;  and  you  reject  the 
Bible  because  it  ascribes  to  God  things  inconsistent  (as  you 
suppose)  with  the  attributes  which  you  have  discovered  to 
belong  to  him  ;  in  particular,  you  think  it  repugnant  to  his 
moral  justice  that  he  should  doom  to  destruction  the  crying 
and  smiling  infants  of  the  Canaanites.  Why  do  you  not  main- 
tain it  to  be  repugnant  to  his  moral  justice  that  he  should 
sulfer  crying  or  smiling  infants  to  be  swallowed  up  by  an 
earthquake,  drowned  by  an  inundation,  consumed  by  fire, 
starved  by  a  famine,  or  destroyed  by  a  pestilence  ? " 


250 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1796 


Dr.  Watson  did  not,  of  course,  know  that  he  was 
following  Bishop  Butler  in  laying  the  foundations  of 
atheism,  though  such  was  the  case.  As  was  said  in 
my  chapter  on  the  "Age  of  Reason,"  this  dilemma 
did  not  really  apply  to  Paine.  His  deity  was  in- 
ferred, despite  all  the  disorders  in  nature,  exclu- 
sively from  its  apprehensible  order  without,  and 
from  the  reason  and  moral  nature  of  man.  He  had 
not  dealt  with  the  problem  of  evil,  except  implicitly, 
in  his  defence  of  the  divine  goodness,  which  is  in- 
consistent with  the  responsibility  of  his  deity  for 
natural  evils,  or  for  anything  that  would  be  con- 
demned by  reason  and  conscience  if  done  by  man. 
It  was  thus  the  Christian  prelate  who  had  aban- 
doned the  primitive  faith,  in  the  divine  humanity  for 
a  natural  deism,  while  the  man  he  calls  a  "  child  of 
the  devil "  was  defending  the  divine  humanity. 

This  then  was  the  way  in  which  Paine  was 
"  answered,"  for  I  am  not  aware  of  any  important 
addition  to  the  Bishop's  "  Apology "  by  other 
opponents.  I  cannot  see  how  any  Christian 
of  the  present  time  can  regard  it  otherwise  than 
as  a  capitulation  of  the  system  it  was  supposed 
to  defend,  however  secure  he  may  regard  the 
Christianity  of  to-day.  It  subjects  the  Bible  to 
the  judgment  of  human  reason  for  the  determina- 
tion of  its  authorship,  the  integrity  of  its  text,  and 
the  correction  of  admitted  errors  in  authorship, 
chronology,  and  genealogy  ;  it  admits  the  fallibility 
of  the  writers  in  matters  of  fact ;  it  admits  that 
some  of  the  moral  laws  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
"improper"  and  others,  like  slavery,  belonging  to 
"the  ferocity  of  human  nature  "  ;  it  admits  the  non- 


1796] 


THROPHILANTHROP  Y. 


251 


fulfilment  of  one  prophet's  prediction,  and  the  self- 
interested  suppression  of  truth  by  another ;  and  it 
admits  that  "  good  men  "  were  engaged  in  concealing 
these  "unsightly  "  things.  Here  are  gates  thrown 
open  for  the  whole  "Age  of  Reason." 

The  unorthodoxy  of  the  Bishop's  "  Apology " 
does  not  rest  on  the  judgment  of  the  present  writer 
alone.  If  Gilbert  Wakefield  presently  had  to  re- 
flect on  his  denunciations  of  Paine  from  the  inside 
of  a  prison,  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  had  occasion  to 
appreciate  Paine's  ideas  on  "mental  lying"  as  the 
Christian  infidelity.  The  Bishop,  born  in  the  same 
year  (1737)  with  the  two  heretics  he  attacked — 
Gibbon  and  Paine — ^began  his  career  as  a  professor 
of  chemistry  at  Cambridge  (1764),  but  seven  years 
later  became  Regius  professor  of  divinity  there. 
His  posthumous  papers  present  a  remarkable  pict- 
ure of  the  church  in  his  time.  In  replying  to  Gib- 
bon he  studied  first  principles,  and  assumed  a  brave 
stand  against  all  intellectual  and  religious  coercion. 
On  the  episcopal  bench  he  advocated  a  liberal 
policy  toward  France.  In  undertaking  to  answer 
Paine  he  became  himself  unsettled  ;  and  at  the  very 
moment  when  unsophisticated  orthodoxy  was  hail- 
ing him  as  its  champion,  the  sagacious  magnates  of 
Church  and  State  proscribed  him.  He  learned  that 
the  king  had  described  him  as  "impracticable"; 
with  bitterness  of  soul  he  saw  prelates  of  inferior 
rank  and  ability  promoted  over  his  head.  He  tried 
the  effect  of  a  political  recantation,  in  one  of  his 
charges ;  and  when  Williams  was  imprisoned  for 
publishing  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  and  Gilbert 
Wakefield  for  rebukino-  his  "  Charge,"  this  former 


252 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1796 


champion  of  free  speech  dared  not  utter  a  protest. 
But  by  this  servility  he  gained  nothing.  He  seems 
to  have  at  length  made  up  his  mind  that  if  he  was 
to  be  punished  for  his  liberalism  he  would  enjoy  it. 
While  preaching  on  "  Revealed  Religion  "  he  saw 
the  Bishop  of  London  shaking  his  head.  In  1811, 
five  years  before  his  death,  he  writes  this  significant 
note:  "I  have  treated  my  divinity  as  I,  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  treated  my  chemical  papers  :  I  have 
lighted  my  fire  with  the  labour  of  a  great  portion 
of  my  life." ' 

Next  to  the  "Age  of  Reason,"  the  book  that 
did  most  to  advance  Paine's  principles  in  Eng- 
land was,  as  I  believe,  Dr.  Watson's  "  Apology  for 
the  Bible."  Dean  Swift  had  warned  the  clergy  that 
if  they  began  to  reason  with  objectors  to  the  creeds 
they  would  awaken  skepticism.  Dr.  Watson  ful- 
filled this  prediction.  He  pointed  out,  as  Gilbert 
Wakefield  did,  some  exegetical  and  verbal  errors 
in  Paine's  book,  but  they  no  more  affected  its  main 
purpose  and  argument  than  the  grammatical  mis- 
takes in  "  Common  Sense  "  diminished  its  force  in  the 
American  Revolution.  David  Dale,  the  great  manu- 

'  Patrick  Henry's  Answer  to  the  "  Age  of  Reason"  shared  the  like  fate. 
"  When,  during  the  first  two  years  of  his  retirement,  Thomas  Paine's 
'  Age  of  Reason '  made  its  appearance,  the  old  statesman  was  moved 
to  write  out  a  somewhat  elaborate  treatise  in  defence  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity.  This  treatise  it  was  his  purpose  to  have  published.  '  He  read 
the  manuscript  to  his  family  as  he  progressed  with  it,  and  completed  it  a 
short  time  before  his  death'  [1799].  When  it  was  finished,  however,  '  be- 
ing diffident  about  his  own  work,'  and  impressed  also  by  the  great  ability  of 
the  replies  to  Paine  which  were  then  appearing;  in  England,  '  he  directed  his 
wife  to  destroy '  what  he  had  written.  She  '  complied  literally  with  his 
directions,'  and  thus  put  beyond  the  chance  of  publication  a  work  which 
seemed,  to  some  who  heard  it,  '  the  most  eloquent  and  unanswerable  argu- 
ment in  defence  of  the  Bible  which  was  ever  written.'  " — Fontaine  MS. 
quoted  in  Tyler's  "  Patrick  Henry." 


1796] 


THEOPHILANTHROP  V. 


253 


facturer  at  Paisley,  distributed  three  thousand 
copies  of  the  "Apology"  among  his  workmen.  The 
books  carried  among  them  extracts  from  Paine, 
and  the  Bishop's  admissions.  Robert  Owen  married 
Dale's  daughter,  and  presently  found  the  Paisley 
workmen  a  ripe  harvest  for  his  rationalism  and 
radicalism. 

Thus,  in  the  person  of  its  first  clerical  assailant, 
began  the  march  of  the  "Age  of  Reason  "  in  England. 
In  the  Bishop's  humiliations  for  his  concessions  to 
truth,  were  illustrated  what  Paine  had  said  of  his 
system's  falsity  and  fraudulence.  After  the  Bishop 
had  observed  the  Bishop  of  London  manifesting 
disapproval  of  his  sermon  on  "  Revealed  Religion  " 
he  went  home  and  wrote  :  "  What  is  this  thing 
called  Orthodoxy,  which  mars  the  fortunes  of 
honest  men  ?  It  is  a  sacred  thing  to  which  every 
denomination  of  Christians  lays  exclusive  claim, 
but  to  which  no  man,  no  assembly  of  men,  since 
the  apostolic  age,  can  prove  a  title."  There  is  now 
a  Bishop  of  London  who  might  not  acknowledge 
the  claim  even  for  the  apostolic  age.  The  princi- 
ples, apart  from  the  particular  criticisms,  of  Paine's 
book  have  established  themselves  in  the  English 
Church.  They  were  affirmed  by  Bishop  Wilson 
in  clear  language  :  "  Christian  duties  are  founded 
on  reason,  not  on  the  sovereignty  of  God  command- 
ing what  he  pleases  :  God  cannot  command  us 
what  is  not  fit  to  be  believed  or  done,  all  his  com- 
mands being  founded  in  the  necessities  of  our 
nature."  It  was  on  this  principle  that  Paine  de- 
clared that  things  in  the  Bible,  "  not  fit  to  be 
believed  or  done,"  could  not  be  divine  commands. 


254 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i797 


His  book,  like  its  author,  was  outlawed,  but  men 
more  heretical  are  now  buried  in  Westminster  Ab- 
bey, and  the  lost  bones  of  Thomas  Paine  are  really 
reposing  in  those  tombs.  It  was  he  who  compelled 
the  hard  and  heartless  Bibliolatry  of  his  time  to 
repair  to  illiterate  conventicles,  and  the  lovers  of 
humanity,  true  followers  of  the  man  of  Nazareth, 
to  abandon  the  crumbling  castle  of  dogma,  preserv- 
ing its  creeds  as  archaic  bric-a-brac.  As  his  "  Rights 
of  Man  "  is  now  the  political  constitution  of  Eng- 
land, his  "  Age  of  Reason  "  is  in  the  growing  con- 
stitution of  its  Church, — the  most  powerful  organi- 
zation in  Christendom  because  the  freest  and  most 
inclusive. 

The  excitement  caused  in  England  by  the  "  Age 
of  Reason,"  and  the  large  number  of  attempted 
replies  to  it,  were  duly  remarked  by  the  Moniteur 
and  other  French  journals.  The  book  awakened 
niuch  attention  in  France,  and  its  principles  were 
reproduced  in  a  little  French  book  entitled  : 
"  Manuel  des  Theoantropophiles."  This  appeared 
in  September,  1796.  In  January,  1797,  Paine,  with 
five  families,  founded  in  Paris  the  church  of  Theo- 
philanthropy,— a  word,  as  he  stated  in  a  letter  to 
Erskine  "  compounded  of  three  Greek  words,  signi- 
fying God,  Love,  and  Man.  The  explanation  given 
to  this  word  is  Lovers  of  God  and  Man,  or  Adorers 
of  God  and  Friends  of  Maji''  The  society  opened 
"  in  the  street  Denis,  No.  34,  corner  of  Lombard 
Street."  "  The  Theophilanthropists  believe  in  the 
existence  of  God,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul." 
The  inaugural  discourse  was  given  by  Paine.  It 
opens  with  these  words  :    "  Religion  has  two  prin- 


17971 


THEOPHILANTIIROP  Y. 


cipal  enemies,  Fanaticism  and  Infidelity,  or  that 
which  is  called  atheism.  The  first  requires  to  be 
combated  by  reason  and  morality,  the  other  by 
natural  philosophy."  The  discourse  is  chiefly  an 
arijfument  for  a  divine  existence  based  on  motion, 
which,  he  maintains,  is  not  a  property  of  matter.  It 
proves  a  Being  "at  the  summit  of  all  things."  At 
the  close  he  says  : 

"  The  society  is  at  present  in  its  infancy,  and  its  means  are 
small ;  but  I  wish  to  hold  in  view  the  subject  I  allude  to,  and 
instead  of  teaching  the  philosophical  branches  of  learning  as 
ornamental  branches  only,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  taught,  to 
teach  them  in  a  manner  that  shall  combine  theological  knowledge 
with  scientific  instruction.  To  do  this  to  the  best  advantage, 
some  instruments  will  be  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  explana- 
tion, of  which  the  society  is  not  yet  possessed.  But  as  the 
views  of  the  Society  extend  to  public  good,  as  well  as  to  that  of 
the  individual,  and  as  its  principles  can  have  no  enemies, 
means  may  be  devised  to  procure  them.  If  we  unite  to  the 
present  instruction  a  series  of  lectures  on  the  ground  I  have 
mentioned,  we  shall,  in  the  first  place,  render  theology  the  most 
entertaining  of  all  studies.  In  the  next  place,  we  shall  give 
scientific  instruction  to  those  who  could  not  otherwise  obtain 
it.  The  mechanic  of  every  profession  will  there  be  taught  the 
mathematical  principles  necessary  to  render  him  proficient  in 
his  art.  The  cultivator  will  there  see  developed  the  principles  of 
vegetation  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  will  be  led  to  see  the 
hand  of  God  in  all  these  things." 

A  volume  of  214  pages  put  forth  at  the  close  of 
the  year  shows  that  the  Theophilanthropists  sang 
theistic  and  humanitarian  hymns,  and  read  Odes ; 
also  that  ethical  readings  were  introduced  from 
the  Bible,  and  from  the  Chinese,  Hindu,  and 
Greek  authors.  A  library  was  established  ("rue 
Neuve-Etienne-l'Estrapade,  No.  25)  at  which  was 
issued  (1797),  "Instruction  Elementaire  sur  la 


256 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Morale  religieuse," — this  being  declared  to  be  mor- 
ality based  on  religion. 

Thus  Paine,  pioneer  in  many  things,  helped  to 
found  the  first  theistic  and  ethical  society. 

It  may  now  be  recognized  as  a  foundation  of  the 
Religion  of  Humanity.  It  was  a  great  point  with 
Paine  that  belief  in  the  divine  existence  was  the 
one  doctrine  common  to  all  religions.  On  this 
rock  the  Church  of  Man  was  to  be  built.  Having 
vainly  endeavored  to  found  the  international  Re- 
public he  must  repair  to  an  ideal  moral  and 
human  world.  Robespierre  and  Pitt  being  unfra- 
ternal  he  will  bring  into  harmony  the  sages  of  all 
races.  It  is  a  notable  instance  of  Paine's  unwill- 
ingness to  bring  a  personal  grievance  into  the  sacred 
presence  of  Humanity  that  one  of  the  four  festi- 
vals of  Theophilanthropy  was  in  honor  of  Wash- 
ington, while  its  catholicity  was  represented  in  a 
like  honor  to  St.  Vincent  de  Paul.  The  others  so 
honored  were  Socrates  and  Rousseau.  These 
selections  were  no  doubt  mainly  due  to  the  French 
members,  but  they  could  hardly  have  been  made 
without  Paine's  agreement.  It  is  creditable  to 
them  all  that,  at  a  time  when  France  believed  itself 
wronged  by  Washington,  his  services  to  liberty 
should  alone  have  been  remembered.  The  flowers 
of  all  races,  as  represented  in  literature  or  in  his- 
tory, found  emblematic  association  with  the  divine 
life  in  nature  through  the  flowers  that  were  heaped 
on  a  simple  altar,  as  they  now  are  in  many  churches 
and  chapels.  The  walls  were  decorated  with  ethical 
mottoes,  enjoining  domestic  kindness  and  public 
benevolence. 


1797] 


THEOPHILANTHROP  Y. 


257 


Paine's  pamphlet  of  this  year  ( 1 797)  on  "Agrarian 
Justice  "  should  be  considered  part  of  the  theophil- 
anthropic  movement.  It  was  written  as  a  proposal 
to  the  French  government,  at  a  time  when  read- 
justment of  landed  property  had  been  rendered 
necessary  by  the  Revolution.*  It  was  suggested  by 
a  sermon  printed  by  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff,  on 
"  The  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God  in  having 
made  both  rich  and  poor."  Paine  denies  that  God 
made  rich  and  poor :  "  he  made  only  male  and  fe- 
male, and  gave  them  the  earth  for  their  inherit- 
ance." The  earth,  though  naturally  the  equal 
possession  of  all,  has  been  necessarily  appropriated 
by  individuals,  because  their  improvements,  which 
alone  render  its  productiveness  adequate  to  hu- 
man needs,  cannot  be  detached  from  the  soil.  Paine 
maintains  that  these  private  owners  do  neverthe- 
less owe  mankind  ground-rent.  He  therefore  pro- 
poses a  tithe,- — not  for  God,  but  for  man.  He 
advises  that  at  the  time  when  the  owner  will  feel 
it  least, — when  property  is  passing  by  inheritance 
from  one  to  another, — the  tithe  shall  be  taken  from 
it.  Personal  property  also  owes  a  debt  to  society, 
without  which  wealth  could  not  exist, — as  in  the 
case  of  one  alone  on  an  island.  By  a  careful  esti- 
mate he  estimates  that  a  tithe  on  inheritances 
would  give  every  person,  on  reaching  majority, 
fifteen  pounds,  and  after  the  age  of  fifty  an  annu- 
ity of  ten  pounds,  leaving  a  substantial  surplus 
for  charity.  The  practical  scheme  submitted  is 
enforced  by  practical  rather  than  theoretical  con- 

'  "  Thomas  Payne  a  la  Legislature  at  au  Directoire  :  ou  la  Justice  Agraire 
Opposee  a  la  Loi  et  aux  Privileges  Agraires." 

VOL.  II. — 17 


258 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l797 


siderations.  Property  is  always  imperilled  by 
poverty,  especially  where  wealth  and  splendor  have 
lost  their  old  fascinations,  and  awaken  emotions 
of  disgust. 

"  To  remove  the  danger  it  is  necessary  to  remove  the  antipa- 
thies, and  this  can  only  be  done  by  making  property  produc- 
tive of  a  national  blessing,  extending  to  every  individual. 
When  the  riches  of  one  man  above  another  shall  increase  the 
national  fund  in  the  same  proportion  ;  when  it  shall  be  seen 
that  the  prosperity  of  that  fund  depends  on  the  prosperity  of 
individuals  ;  when  the  more  riches  a  man  acquires,  the  better  it 
shall  be  for  the  general  mass  ;  it  is  then  that  antipathies  will 
cease,  and  property  be  placed  on  the  permanent  basis  of  national 
interest  and  protection. 

"  I  have  no  property  in  France  to  become  subject  to  the 
plan  I  propose.  What  I  have,  which  is  not  much,  is  in  the 
United  States  of  America.  But  I  will  pay  one  hundred  pounds 
sterling  towards  this  fund  in  France,  the  instant  it  shall  be 
established  ;  and  I  will  pay  the  same  sum  in  England,  when- 
ever a  similar  establishment  shall  take  place  in  that  country." 

The  tithe  was  to  be  given  to  rich  and  poor  alike, 
including  owners  of  the  property  tithed,  in  order 
that  there  should  be  no  association  of  alms  with 
this  "agrarian  justice." 

About  this  time  the  priesthood  began  to  raise 
their  heads  again.  A  report  favorable  to  a  re- 
storation to  them  of  the  churches,  the  raising 
of  bells,  and  some  national  recognition  of  public 
worship,  was  made  by  Camille  Jordan  for  a  com- 
mittee on  the  subject.  The  jesuitical  report  was 
especially  poetical  about  church  bells,  which  Paine 
knew  would  ring  the  knell  of  the  Republic.  He 
wrote  a  theophilanthropic  letter  to  Camille  Jordan, 
from  which  I  quote  some  paragraphs. 


1797] 


THEOPHILANTHROP  Y. 


259 


"  You  claim  a  privilege  incompatible  with  the  Constitution, 
and  with  Rights.  The  Constitution  protects  equally,  as  it 
ought  to  do,  every  profession  of  religion  ;  it  gives  no  exclusive 
privilege  to  any.  The  churches  are  the  common  property  of 
all  the  people  ;  they  are  national  goods,  and  cannot  be  given 
exclusively  to  any  one  profession,  because  the  right  does  not 
exist  of  giving  to  any  one  that  which  appertains  to  all.  It 
would  be  consistent  with  right  that  the  churches  should  be 
sold,  and  the  money  arising  therefrom  be  invested  as  a  fund 
for  the  education  of  children  of  poor  parents  of  every 
profession,  and,  if  more  than  sufficient  for  this  purpose,  that 
the  surplus  be  appropriated  to  the  support  of  the  aged  poor. 
After  this  every  profession  can  erect  its  own  place  of  worship, 
if  it  choose — support  its  own  priests,  if  it  choose  to  have  any — 
or  perform  its  worship  without  priests,  as  the  Quakers  do." 

"  It  is  a  want  of  feeling  to  talk  of  priests  and  bells  whilst  so 
many  infants  are  perishing  in  the  hospitals,  and  aged  and  in- 
firm poor  in  the  streets.  The  abundance  that  France  possesses 
is  sufficient  for  every  want,  if  rightly  applied  ;  but  priests  and 
bells,  like  articles  of  luxury,  ought  to  be  the  least  articles  of 
consideration." 

"  No  man  ought  to  make  a  living  by  religion.  It  is  dishonest 
to  do  so.  Religion  is  not  an  act  that  can  be  performed  by 
proxy.  One  person  cannot  act  religion  for  another.  Every 
person  must  perform  it  for  himself  ;  and  all  that  a  priest  can 
do  is  to  take  from  him  ;  he  wants  nothing  but  his  money,  and 
then  to  riot  in  the  spoil  and  laugh  at  his  credulity.  The  only 
people  who,  as  a  professional  sect  of  Christians,  provide  for 
the  poor  of  their  society,  are  people  known  by  the  name  of 
Quakers.  These  men  have  no  priests.  They  assemble 
quietly  in  their  places  of  worship,  and  do  not  disturb  their 
neighbors  with  shows  and  noise  of  bells.  Religion  does  not 
unite  itself  to  show  and  noise.  True  religion  is  without 
either.' 

"  One  good  schoolmaster  is  of  more  use  than  a  hundred 
priests.  If  we  look  back  at  what  was  the  condition  of  France 
under  the  ancieti  regime,  we  cannot  acquit  the  priests  of  cor- 
rupting the  morals  of  the  nation." 

"  Why  has  the  Revolution  of  France  been  stained  with 
crimes,  while  the  Revolution  of  the  United  States  of  America 


26o 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


was  not  ?  Men  are  physically  the  same  in  all  countries  ;  it  is 
education  that  makes  them  different.  Accustom  a  people  to 
believe  that  priests,  or  any  other  class  of  men,  can  forgive  sins, 
and  you  will  have  sins  in  abundance." 

While  Thomas  Paine  was  thus  founding  in  Paris 
a  religion  of  love  to  God  expressed  in  love  to  man, 
his  enemies  in  England  were  illustrating  by  charac- 
teristic fruits  the  dogmas  based  on  a  human  sacri- 
fice. The  ascendency  of  the  priesthood  of  one 
church  over  others,which  he  was  resisting  in  France, 
was  exemplified  across  the  channel  in  the  prose- 
cution of  his  publisher,  and  the  confiscation  of  a 
thousand  pounds  which  had  somehow  fallen  due 
to  Paine.'  The  "Age  of  Reason,"  amply  advertised 
by  its  opponents,  had  reached  a  vast  circulation, 
and  a  prosecution  of  its  publisher,  Thomas  Wil- 
liams, for  blasphemy,  was  instituted  in  the  King's 
Bench.  Williams  being  a  poor  man,  the  defence 
was  sustained  by  a  subscription.^  The  trial  oc- 
curred June  24th.  The  extent  to  which  the  English 
reign  of  terror  had  gone  was  shown  in  the  fact  that 
Erskine  was  now  the  prosecutor  ;  he  who  five  years 
before  had  defended  the  "  Rights  of  Man,"  who  had 
left  the  court  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  the  people, 
now  stood  in  the  same  room  to  assail  the  most 
sacred  of  rights.    He  began  with  a  menace  to  the 

'  This  loss,  mentioned  by  Paine  in  a  private  note,  occurred  about  the 
time  when  he  had  devoted  the  proceeds  of  his  pamphlet  on  English  Finance, 
a  very  large  sum,  to  prisoners  held  for  debt  in  Newgate.  I  suppose  the 
thousand  pounds  were  the  proceeds  of  the  "  Age  of  Reason." 

'  "  Subscriptions  (says  his  circular)  will  be  received  by  J.  Ashley,  Shoe- 
maker, No.  6  High  Holborn  ;  C.  Cooper,  Grocer,  New  Compton-st.,  Soho  ; 
G.  Wilkinson,  Printer,  No.  115  Shoreditch  ;  J.  Rhynd,  Printer,  Ray-st., 
Clerkenvvell  ;  R.  Hodgson,  Hatter,  No.  29  Brook-st.,  Holborn."  It  will 
be  observed  that  the  defence  of  free  printing  had  fallen  to  humble  people. 


1797] 


THEOPHILANTHROP  Y. 


261 


defendant's  counsel  (S.  Kyd)  on  account  of  a  notice 
served  on  the  prosecution,  foreshadowing  a  search 
into  the  Scriptures.'  "  No  man,"  he  cried,  "  de- 
serves to  be  upon  the  Rolls  of  the  Court  who  dares, 
as  an  Attorney,  to  put  his  name  to  such  a  notice. 
It  is  an  insult  to  the  authority  and  dignity  of  the 
Court  of  which  he  is  an  officer  ;  since  it  seems  to 
call  in  question  the  very  foundations  of  its  juris- 
diction." So  soon  did  Erskine  point  the  satire  of 
the  fable  he  quoted  from  Lucian,  in  Paine's  defence, 
of  Jupiter  answering  arguments  with  thunderbolts. 
Erskine's  argument  was  that  the  King  had  taken 
a  solemn  oath  "  to  maintain  the  Christian  Re- 
ligion as  it  is  promulgated  by  God  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures."  "Every  man  has  a  right  to  investi- 
gate, with  modesty  and  decency,  controversial 
points  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  but  no  man,  con- 
sistently with  a  law  which  only  exists  under  its 
sanction,  has  a  right  not  only  broadly  to  deny  its 
very  existence,  but  to  pour  forth  a  shocking  and 
insulting  invective,  etc."  The  law,  he  said,  permits, 
by  a  like  principle,  the  intercourse  between  the 
sexes  to  be  set  forth  in  plays  and  novels,  but  pun- 
ishes such  as  "  address  the  imagination  in  a  manner 
to  lead  the  passions  into  dangerous  excesses." 
Erskine  read  several  passages  from  the  "  Age  of 
Reason,"  which,  their  main  point  being  omitted, 
seemed  mere  aimless  abuse.  In  his  speech,  he 
quoted  as  Paine's  words  of  his  own  collocation, 

'  "  The  King  v.  Thomas  Williams  for  Blasphemy. — Take  notice  that  the 
Prosecutors  of  the  Indictment  against  the  above  named  Defendant  will  upon 
the  Trial  of  this  cause  be  required  to  produce  a  certain  Book  described  in 
the  said  Indictment  to  be  the  Holy  Bible. — John  Martin,  Solicitor  for  the 
Defendant.   Dated  the  17th  day  of  June  1797." 


262 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1797 


representing  the  author  as  saying,  "  The  Bible 
teaches  nothing  but  'lies,  obscenity,  cruelty,  and 
injustice.'  "  This  is  his  entire  and  inaccurate  ren- 
dering of  what  Paine, — who  always  distinguishes 
the  "  Bible  "  from  the  "  New  Testament," — says  at 
the  close  of  his  comment  on  the  massacre  of  the 
Midianites  and  appropriation  of  their  maidens  : 

"  People  in  general  know  not  what  wickedness  there  is  in  this 
pretended  word  of  God.  Brought  up  in  habits  of  superstition, 
they  take  it  for  granted  that  the  Bible  [Old  Testament]  is  true, 
and  that  it  is  good  ;  they  permit  themselves  not  to  doubt  it  ; 
and  they  carry  the  ideas  they  form  of  the  benevolence  of  the 
Almighty  to  the  book  they  have  been  taught  to  believe  was 
written  by  his  authority.  Good  heavens  !  it  is  quite  another 
thing  !  it  is  a  book  of  lies,  wickedness,  and  blasphemy  ;  for 
what  can  be  greater  blasphemy  than  to  ascribe  the  wickedness 
of  man  to  the  orders  of  the  Almighty  ?  " 

Erskine  argued  that  the  sanction  of  Law  was  the 
oath  by  which  judges,  juries,  witnesses  adminis- 
tered law  and  justice  under  a  belief  in  "the  revela- 
tion of  the  unutterable  blessings  which  shall  attend 
their  observances,  and  the  awful  punishments  which 
shall  await  upon  their  transgressions."  The  rest 
of  his  opening  argument  was,  mainly,  that  great 
men  had  believed  in  Christianity. 

Mr.  Kyd,  in  replying,  quoted  from  the  Bishop  of 
Llandaff's  "  Answer  to  Gibbon  "  :  "  I  look  upon  the 
right  of  private  judgment,  in  every  respect  concern- 
ing God  and  ourselves,  as  superior  to  the  control  of 
human  authority  "  ;  and  his  claim  that  the  Church  of 
England  is  distinguished  from  Mahometanism  and 
Romanism  by  its  permission  of  every  man  to  utter 
his  opinion  freely.    He  also  cites  Dr.  Lardner,  and 


1797] 


THEOPinLANTrrROP  Y. 


263 


Dr.  Waddington,  the  Bishop  of  Chichester,  who 
declared  that  Woolston  "  ought  not  to  be  punished 
for  being  an  infidel,  nor  for  writing  against  the 
Christian  religion."  He  quoted  Paine's  profession 
of  faith  on  the  first  page  of  the  incriminated  book  : 
"  I  believe  in  one  God  and  no  more ;  I  hope  for 
happiness,  beyond  this  life  ;  I  believe  in  the  equality 
of  men,  and  I  believe  that  religious  duties  consist 
in  doing  justice,  loving  mercy,  and  endeavouring  to 
make  our  fellow  creatures  happy."  He  also  quoted 
Paine's  homage  to  the  character  of  Jesus.  He 
defied  the  prosecution  to  find  in  the  "  Age  of  Rea- 
son "  a  single  passage  "  inconsistent  with  the  most 
chaste,  the  most  correct  system  of  morals,"  and 
declared  the  very  passages  selected  for  indictment 
pleas  against  obscenity  and  cruelty,  Mr.  Kyd 
pointed  out  fourteen  narratives  in  the  Bible  (such 
as  Sarah  giving  Hagar  to  Abraham,  Lot  and  his 
daughters,  etc.)  which,  if  found  in  any  other  book, 
would  be  pronounced  obscene.  He  was  about  to 
enumerate  instances  of  cruelty  when  the  judge. 
Lord  Kenyon,  indignantly  interrupted  him,  and 
with  consent  of  the  jury  said  he  could  only  allow 
him  to  cite  such  passages  without  reading  them. 
(Mr.  Kyd  gratefully  acknowledged  this  release 
from  the  "painful  task"  of  reading  such  horrors 
,  from  the  "  Word  of  God"  !)  One  of  the  interest- 
ing things  about  this  trial  was  the  disclosure  of  the 
general  reliance  on  Butler's  "  Analogy,"  used  by 
Bishop  Watson  in  his  reply  to  Paine, — namely, 
that  the  cruelties  objected  to  in  the  God  of  the 
Bible  are  equally  found  in  nature,  through 
which  deists  look  up  to  their  God.    When  Kyd, 


264 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l797 


after  quoting  from  Bishop  Watson,  said,  "  Gentle- 
men, observe  the  weakness  of  this  answer,"  Lord 
Kenyon  exclaimed  :  "  I  cannot  sit  in  this  place  and 
hear  this  kind  of  discussion."  Kyd  said  :  "  My 
Lord,  I  stand  here  on  the  privilege  of  an  advocate 
in  an  English  Court  of  Justice  :  this  man  has  applied 
to  me  to  defend  him  ;  I  have  undertaken  his  de- 
fence ;  and  I  have  often  heard  your  Lordship 
declare,  that  every  man  had  a  right  to  be  defended. 
I  know  no  other  mode  by  which  I  can  seriously 
defend  him  against  this  charge,  than  that  which  I 
am  now  pursuing  ;  if  your  Lordship  wish  to  pre- 
vent me  from  pursuing  it,  you  may  as  well  tell  me 
to  abandon  my  duty  to  my  client  at  once."  Lord 
Kenyon  said  :  "  Go  on,  Sir."  Returning  to  the 
analogy  of  the  divinely  ordered  massacres  in  the 
Bible  with  the  like  in  nature,  Kyd  said  : 

"  Gentlemen,  this  is  reasoning  by  comparison  ;  and  reasoning 
by  comparison  is  often  fallacious.  On  the  present  occasion  the 
fallacy  is  this  :  that,  in  the  first  case,  the  persons  perish  by  the 
operation  of  the  general  laws  of  nature,  not  suffering  punish- 
ment for  a  crime  ;  whereas,  in  the  latter,  the  general  laws  of 
nature  are  suspended  or  transgressed,  and  God  commands  the 
slaughter  to  avenge  his  offended  will.  Is  this  then  a  satisfactory 
answer  to  the  objection  ?  I  think  it  is  not  ;  another  may  think 
so  too  ;  which  it  may  be  fairly  supposed  the  Author  did  ;  and 
then  the  objection,  as  to  him,  remains  in  full  force,  and  he 
cannot,  from  insisting  upon  it,  be  fairly  accused  of  malevolent 
intention." 

In  his  answer  Erskine  said  :  "  The  history  of 
man  is  the  history  of  man's  vices  and  passions, 
which  could  not  be  censured  without  adverting  to 
their  existence  ;  many  of  the  instances  that  have 
been  referred  to    were    recorded    as  memorable 


1797] 


THEOPHILANTHROP  Y. 


265 


warnings  and  examples  for  the  instruction  of  man- 
kind." But  for  this  arg-ument  Erskine  was  indebted 
to  his  old  client,  Paine,  who  did  not  argue  against 
the  things  being  recorded,  but  against  the  belief 
"  that  the  inhuman  and  horrid  butcheries  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  told  of  in  those  books,  were 
done,  as  those  books  say  they  were  done,  at  the 
command  of  God."  Paine  says  :  "  Those  accounts 
are  nothing  to  us,  nor  to  any  other  persons,  unless 
it  be  to  the  Jews,  as  a  part  of  the  history  of  their 
nation  ;  and  there  is  just  as  much  of  the  word  of 
God  in  those  books  as  there  is  in  any  of  the  histo- 
ries of  France,  or  Rapin's  '  History  of  England,'  or 
the  history  of  any  other  country." 

As  in  Paine's  own  trial  in  1792,  the  infallible 
scheme  of  a  special  jury  was  used  against  Williams. 
Lord  Kenyon  closed  his  charge  with  the  words : 
"  Unless  it  was  for  the  most  malignant  purposes,  I 
cannot  conceive  how  it  was  published.  It  is,  how- 
ever, for  you  to  judge  of  it,  and  to  do  justice 
between  the  Public  and  the  Defendant." 

"  The  jury  instantly  found  the  Defendant — 
Guilty." 

Paine  at  once  wrote  a  letter  to  Erskine,  which 
was  first  printed  in  Paris.  He  calls  attention  to  the 
injustice  of  the  special  jury  system,  in  which  all  the 
jurymen  are  nominated  by  the  crown.  In  London 
a  special  jury  generally  consists  of  merchants. 
"  Talk  to  some  London  merchants  about  scripture, 
and  they  will  understand  you  mean  scrip,  and  tell 
you  how  much  it  is  worth  at  the  Stock  Exchange. 
Ask  them  about  Theology,  and  they  will  say  they 
know  no  such  gentleman  upon  'Change."    He  also 


266 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


declares  that  Lord  Kenyon's  course  in  preventing 
Mr.  Kyd  from  reading  passages  from  the  Bible  was 
irregular,  and  contrary  to  words,  which  he  cites, 
used  by  the  same  judge  in  another  case. 

This  Letter  to  Erskine  contains  some  effective 
passages.  In  one  of  these  he  points  out  the 
sophistical  character  of  the  indictment  in  declaring 
the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  a  blasphemous  work,  tend- 
ing to  bring  in  contempt  the  holy  scriptures.  The 
charge  should  have  stated  that  the  work  was  in- 
tended to  prove  certain  books  not  the  holy  scrip- 
tures. "  It  is  one  thing  if  I  ridicule  a  work  as  being 
written  by  a  certain  person  ;  but  it  is  quite  a  differ- 
ent thing  if  I  write  to  prove  that  such  a  work  was 
not  written  by  such  person.  In  the  first  case  I  at- 
tack the  person  through  the  work ;  in  the  other 
case  I  defend  the  honour  of  the  person  against  the 
work."  After  alluding  to  the  two  accounts  in 
Genesis  of  the  creation  of  man,  according  to  one  of 
which  there  was  no  Garden  of  Eden  and  no  forbid- 
den tree,  Paine  says  : 

"  Perhaps  I  shall  be  told  in  the  cant  language  of  the  day,  as 
I  have  often  been  told  by  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  and  others, 
of  the  great  and  laudable  pains  that  many  pious  and  learned 
men  have  taken  to  explain  the  obscure,  and  reconcile  the  con- 
tradictory, or,  as  they  say,  the  seemingly  contradictory  passages 
of  the  Bible.  It  is  because  the  Bible  needs  such  an  under- 
taking, that  is  one  of  the  first  causes  to  suspect  it  is  not  the 
word  of  God  :  this  single  reflection,  when  carried  home  to  the 
mind,  is  in  itself  a  volume.  What  !  does  not  the  Creator  of 
the  Universe,  the  Fountain  of  all  Wisdom,  the  Origin  of  all 
Science,  the  Author  of  all  Knowledge,  the  God  of  Order  and 
of  Harmony,  know  how  to  write  ?  When  we  contemplate  the 
vast  economy  of  the  creation,  when  we  behold  the  unerring 
regularity  of  the  visible  solar  system,  the  perfection  with  which 


1797] 


THEOPHILA N  THROP  V. 


267 


all  its  several  parts  revolve,  and  by  corresponding  assemblage 
form  a  whole  ; — when  we  launch  our  eye  into  the  boundless 
ocean  of  space,  and  see  ourselves  surrounded  by  innumerable 
worlds,  not  one  of  which  varies  from  its  appointed  place — when 
we  trace  the  power  of  a  Creator,  from  a  mite  to  an  elephant, 
from  an  atom  to  an  universe,  can  we  suppose  that  the  mind 
[which]  could  conceive  such  a  design,  and  the  power  that 
executed  it  with  incomparable  perfection,  cannot  write  without 
inconsistence  ;  or  that  a  book  so  written  can  be  the  work  of 
such  a  power  ?  The  writings  of  Thomas  Paine,  even  of  Thomas 
Paine,  need  no  commentator  to  explain,  compound,  arrange, 
and  re-arrange  their  several  parts,  to  render  them  intelligible — 
he  can  relate  a  fact,  or  write  an  essay,  without  forgetting  in 
one  page  what  he  has  written  in  another  ;  certainly  then,  did 
the  God  of  all  perfection  condescend  to  write  or  dictate  a 
book,  that  book  would  be  as  perfect  as  himself  is  perfect  :  The 
Bible  is  not  so,  and  it  is  confessedly  not  so,  by  the  attempts 
to  mend  it." 

Paine  admonishes  Erskine  that  a  prosecution  to 
preserve  God's  word,  were  it  really  God's  word, 
would  be  like  a  prosecution  to  prevent  the  sun 
from  falling  out  of  heaven  ;  also  that  he  should  be 
able  to  comprehend  that  the  motives  of  those  who 
declare  the  Bible  not  God's  word  are  religious. 
He  then  gives  him  an  account  of  the  new  church 
of  Theophilanthropists  in  Paris,  and  appends  his 
discourse  before  that  society. 

In  the  following  year,  Paine's  discourse  to  the 
Theophilanthropists  was  separately  printed  by 
Clio  Rickman,  with  a  sentence  from  Shakespeare 
in  the  title-page  :  "  I  had  as  lief  have  the  foppery 
of  freedom  as  the  morality  of  imprisonment." 
There  was  also  the  following  dedication  : 

"  The  following  little  Discourse  is  dedicated  to  the  enemies 
of  Thomas  Paine,  by  one  who  has  known  him  long  and  inti- 


268 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i797 


mately,  and  who  is  convinced  that  he  is  the  enemy  of  no  man. 

It  is  printed  to  do  good,  by  a  well  wisher  to  the  world.    By  \ 

one  who  thinks  that  discussion  should  be  unlimited,  that  all 

coercion  is  error  ;  and  that  human  beings  should  adopt  no 

other  conduct  towards  each  other  but  an  appeal  to  truth  and 

reason." 

Paine  wrote  privately,  in  the  same  sense  as  to 
Erskine,  to  his  remonstrating  friends.  In  one  such 
letter  (May  12th)  he  goes  again  partly  over  the 
ground.  "  You,"  he  says,  "  believe  in  the  Bible 
from  the  accident  of  birth,  and  the  Turks  believe 
in  the  Koran  from  the  same  accident,  and  each 
calls  the  other  infidel.  This  answer  to  your  letter 
is  not  written  for  the  purpose  of  changing  your 
opinion.  It  is  written  to  satisfy  you,  and  some 
other  friends  whom  I  esteem,  that  my  disbelief  of 
the  Bible  is  founded  on  a  pure  and  religious  belief 
in  God."  "  All  are  infidels  who  believe  falsely  of 
God."  "  Belief  in  a  cruel  God  makes  a  cruel 
man." 

Paine  had  for  some  time  been  attaining  unique 
fame  in  England.  Some  publisher  had  found  it 
worth  while  to  issue  a  book,  entitled  "  Tom  Paine's 
Jests  :  Being  an  entirely  new  and  select  Collection 
of  Patriotic  Bon  Mots,  Repartees,  Anecdotes,  Epi- 
grams, &c.,  on  Political  Subjects.  By  Thomas 
Paine."  There  are  hardly  a  half  dozen  items  by 
Paine  in  the  book  (72  pages),  which  shows  that 
his  name  was  considered  marketable.  The  gov- 
ernment had  made  the  author  a  cause.  Erskine, 
who  had  lost  his  ofifice  as  Attorney-General  for 
the  Prince  of  Wales  by  becoming  Paine's  counsel 
in  1  792,  was  at  once  taken  back  into  favor  after 


1797] 


THEOPHILANTHROP  Y. 


269 


prosecuting  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  and  put  on  his 
way  to  become  Lord  Erskine.  The  imprisonment 
of  Williams  caused  a  reaction  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  had  turned  against  Paine.  Christianity- 
suffered  under  royal  patronage.  The  terror  mani- 
fested at  the  name  of  Paine — some  were  arrested 
even  for  showing  his  portrait — was  felt  to  be 
political.  None  of  the  aristocratic  deists,  who 
wrote  for  the  upper  classes,  were  dealt  with  in  the 
same  way.  Paine  had  proclaimed  from  the  house- 
tops what,  as  Dr.  Watson  confessed,  scholars  were 
whispering  in  the  ear.  There  were  lampoons  of 
Paine,  such  as  those  of  Peter  Pindar  (Rev.  John 
Wolcott),  but  they  only  served  to  whet  popular 
curiosity  concerning  him.'  The  "Age  of  Reason" 
had  passed  through  several  editions  before  it  was 
outlawed,  and  every  copy  of  it  passed  through 
many  hands.  From  the  prosecution  and  imprison- 
ment of  Williams  may  be  dated  the  consolidation 
of  the  movement  for  the  "  Rights  of  Man,"  with 
antagonism  to  the  kind  of  Christianity  which  that 
injustice  illustrated.  Political  liberalism  and  heresy 
thenceforth  progressed  in  England,  hand  in  hand. 

'  "  I  have  preserved,"  says  Royall  Tyler,  "  an  epigram  of  Peter  Pindar's, 
written  originally  in  a  blank  leaf  of  a  copy  of  Paine's  '  Age  of  Reason,' 
and  not  inserted  in  any  of  his  works. 

"  '  Tommy  Paine  wrote  this  book  to  prove  that  the  bible 
Was  an  old  woman's  dream  of  fancies  most  idle  ; 
That  Solomon's  proverbs  were  made  by  low  livers. 
That  prophets  were  fellows  who  sang  semiquavers  ; 
That  religion  and  miracles  all  were  a  jest, 
And  the  devil  in  torment  a  tale  of  the  priest. 
Though  Beelzebub's  absence  from  hell  I  '11  maintain, 
Yet  we  all  must  allow  that  the  Devil's  in  Paine.'  " 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL. 

The  sight  of  James  Monroe  and  Thomas  Paine 
in  France,  representing  Republican  America,  was 
more  than  Gouverneur  Morris  could  stand.  He 
sent  to  Washington  the  abominable  slander  of 
Monroe  already  quoted  (ii.,  p.  173),  and  the  Minis- 
ter's recall  came  at  the  close  of  1 796.^  Monroe 
could  not  sail  in  midwinter  with  his  family,  so  they 
remained  until  the  following  spring.  Paine  made 
preparations  to  return  to  America  with  them,  and 
accompanied  them  to  Havre  ;  but  he  found  so 
many  "  british  frigates  cruising  in  sight "  (so  he 
writes  Jefferson)  that  he  did  not  "  trust  [himself]  to 
their  discretion,  and  the  more  so  as  [he]  had  no 
confidence  in  the  Captain  of  the  Dublin  Packet." 
Sure  enough  this  Captain  Clay  was  friendly  enough 

'  This  sudden  recall  involved  Monroe  in  heavy  expenses,  which  Congress 
afterwards  repaid.  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Frederick  McGuire,  of  Washing- 
ton, for  the  manuscript  of  Monroe's  statement  of  his  expenses  and  annoy- 
ances caused  by  his  recall,  which  he  declares  due  to  ' '  the  representations 
which  were  made  to  him  [Washington]  by  those  in  whom  he  confided."  He 
states  that  Paine  remained  in  his  house  a  year  and  a  half,  and  that  he  ad- 
vanced him  250  louis  d'or.  For  these  services  to  Paine,  he  adds,  "no 
claims  were  ever  presented  on  my  part,  nor  is  any  indemnity  now  desired." 
This  money  was  repaid  (f  I,l88)  to  Monroe  by  an  Act  of  Congress,  April  7, 
1831.  The  advances  are  stated  in  the  Act  to  have  been  made  "  from  time 
to  time,"  and  were  no  doubt  regarded  by  both  Paine  and  Monroe  as  com- 
pensated by  the  many  services  rendered  by  the  author  to  the  Legation. 

270 


1797] 


THE  A'EPUBLJCAN  ABDIEL. 


with  the  British  cruiser  which  lay  in  wait  to  catch 
Paine,  but  only  succeeded  in  finding  his  letter  to 
Jefferson.  Before  returning  from  Havre  to  Paris 
he  wrote  another  letter  to  Vice-President  Jefferson. 

"  Havrk,  May  14th,  1797. 
"  Dear  Sir, — I  wrote  to  you  by  the  Ship  Dublin  Packet, 
Captain  Clay,  mentioning  my  intention  to  have  returned  to 
America  by  that  Vessel,  and  to  have  suggested  to  some  Mem- 
ber of  the  House  of  Representatives  the  propriety  of  calling 
Mr.  Monroe  before  them  to  have  enquired  into  the  state  of 
their  affairs  in  France.  This  might  have  laid  the  foundation 
for  some  resolves  on  their  part  that  might  have  led  to  an 
accomodation  with  France,  for  that  House  is  the  only  part  of 
the  American  Government  that  have  any  reputation  here.  I 
apprised  Mr.  Monroe  of  my  design,  and  he  wishes  to  be  called 
up. 

"You  will  have  heard  before  this  reaches  you  that  the  Emperor 
has  been  obliged  to  sue  for  peace,  and  to  consent  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  new  republic  in  Lombardy.  How  France  will 
liroceed  with  respect  to  England,  I  am  not,  at  this  distance 
from  Paris,  in  the  way  of  knowing,  but  am  inclined  to  think 
she  meditates  a  descent  upon  that  Country,  and  a  revolution 
in  its  Government.  If  this  should  be  the  plan,  it  will  keep  me 
in  Europe  at  least  another  year. 

"  As  the  british  party  has  thrown  the  American  commerce 
into  wretched  confusion,  it  is  necessary  to  pay  more  attention 
to  the  appointment  of  Consuls  in  the  ports  of  france,  than 
there  was  occasion  to  do  in  time  of  peace  ;  especially  as  there 
is  now  no  Minister,  and  Mr.  Skipwith,  who  stood  well  with 
the  Government  here,  has  resigned.  Mr.  Cutting,  the  Consul 
for  Havre,  does  not  reside  at  it,  and  the  business  is  altogether 
in  the  hands  of  De  la  Motte,  the  Vice  Consul,  who  is  a  french- 
man, [and]  cannot  have  the  full  authority  proper  for  the  office 
in  the  difficult  state  matters  are  now  in.  I  do  not  mention 
this  to  the  disadvantage  of  Mr.  Cutting,  for  no  man  is  more 
proper  than  himself  if  he  thought  it  an  object  to  attend  to. 

"  I  know  not  if  you  are  acquainted  with  Captain  Johnson 
of  Massachusetts — he  is  a  staunch  man  and  one  of  the  oldest 


272 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i797 


American  Captains  in  the  American  employ.  He  is  now- 
settled  at  Havre  and  is  a  more  proper  man  for  a  Vice  Consul 
than  La  Motte.  You  can  learn  his  character  from  Mr.  Monroe. 
He  has  written  to  some  of  his  friends  to  have  the  appointment 
and  if  you  can  see  an  opportunity  of  throwing  in  a  little  ser- 
vice for  him,  you  will  do  a  good  thing.  We  have  had  several 
reports  of  Mr.  Madison's  coming.  He  would  be  well  received 
as  an  individual,  but  as  an  Envoy  of  John  Adams  he  could  do 
nothing. 

"Thomas  Paine." 

The  following,  in  Paine's  handwriting,  is  copied 
from  the  original  in  the  Morrison  papers,  at  the 
British  Museum,  It  was  written  in  the  summer  of 
1797,  when  Lord  Malmsbury  was  at  Lille  in  nego- 
tiation for  peace.  The  negotiations  were  broken 
off  because  the  English  commissioners  were  un- 
authorized to  make  the  demanded  restorations  to 
Holland  and  Spain.  Paine's  essay  was  no  doubt 
sent  to  the  Directory  in  the  interests  of  peace,  sug- 
gesting as  it  does  a  compromise,  as  regards  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

"  Cape  of  Good  Hope. — It  is  very  well  known  that  Dun- 
das,  the  English  Minister  for  Indian  affairs,  is  tenacious  of 
holding  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  because  it  will  give  to  the 
English  East  India  Company  a  monopoly  of  the  commerce  of 
India  ;  and  this,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  very  reason  that 
such  a  claim  is  inadmissible  by  France,  and  by  all  the  nations 
trading  in  India  and  to  Canton,  and  would  also  be  injurious  to 
Canton  itself. — We  pretend  not  to  know  anything  of  the  nego- 
ciations  at  Lille,  but  it  is  very  easy  to  see,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  what  ought  to  be  the  condition  of  the  Cape.  It  ought 
to  be  a  free  port  open  to  the  vessels  of  all  nations  trading  to 
any  part  of  the  East  Indias.  It  ought  also  to  be  a  neutral  port 
at  all  times,  under  the  guarantee  of  all  nations  ;  the  expense  of 
keeping  the  port  in  constant  repair  to  be  defrayed  by  a  tonnage 


THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL. 


^71 


tax  to  be  paid  by  every  vessel,  whether  of  commerce  or  of  war, 
and  in  proportion  to  the  time  of  their  stay. — Nothing  then 
remains  but  with  respect  to  the  nation  who  shall  be  the  port- 
master  ;  and  this  ought  to  be  the  Dutch,  because  they  under- 
stand the  business  best.  As  the  Cape  is  a  half-way  stage 
between  Europe  and  India,  it  ought  to  be  considered  as  a 
tavern,  where  travellers  on  a  long  journey  put  up  for  rest  and 
refreshment. — T.  P." 

The  suspension  of  peace  negotiations,'  and  the 
bloodless  defeat  of  Pichigru's  conspiracy  of  i8 
Fructidor  (September  4th)  were  followed  by  a 
pamphlet  addressed  to  "  The  People  of  France  and 
the  French  Armies."  This  little  work  is  of  historical 
value,  in  connection  with  18  Fructidor,  but  it  was 
evidently  written  to  carry  two  practical  points.  The 
first  was,  that  if  the  war  with  England  must  con- 
tinue it  should  be  directed  to  the  end  of  breaking 
the  Anglo-Germanic  compact.  England  has  the 
right  to  her  internal  arrangements,  but  this  is  an 
external  matter.  While  "with  respect  to  England 
it  has  been  the  cause  of  her  immense  national  debt, 
the  ruin  of  her  finances,  and  the  insolvency  of  her 
bank,"  English  intrigues  on  the  continent  "  are 
generated  by,  and  act  through,  the  medium  of  this 
Anglo-Germanic  compound.  It  will  be  necessary 
to  dissolve  it.  Let  the  elector  retire  to  his  elector- 
ate, and  the  world  will  have  peace."    Paine's  other 

'  In  a  letter  to  Duane,  many  years  later,  Paine  relates  the  following  story 
concerning  the  British  Union  :  ' '  When  Lord  Malmsbury  arrived  in  Paris, 
in  the  time  of  the  Directory  Government,  to  open  a  negociation  for  a  peace, 
his  credentials  ran  in  the  old  style  of  '  George,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  Great 
Britain,  France,  and  Ireland,  king.'  Malmsbury  was  informed  that  although 
the  assumed  title  of  king  of  France,  in  his  credentials,  would  not  prevent 
France  opening  a  negociation,  yet  that  no  treaty  of  peace  could  be  con- 
cluded until  that  assumed  title  was  removed.  Pitt  then  hit  on  the  Union 
Bill,  under  which  the  assumed  title  of  king  of  France  was  discontinued." 

VOL.  II. — 18 


274 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[^797 


main  point  is,  that  the  neutral  nations  should 
secure,  in  time  of  war,  an  unarmed  neutrality. 

"  Were  the  neutral  nations  to  associate,  under  an  honorable 
injunction  of  fidelity  to  each  other,  and  publickly  declare  to 
the  world,  that  if  any  belligerent  power  shall  seize  or  molest 
any  ship  or  vessel  belonging  to  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  any 
of  the  powers  composing  that  association,  that  the  whole  asso- 
ciation will  shut  its  ports  against  the  flag  of  the  offending 
nation,  and  will  not  permit  any  goods,  wares,  or  merchandize, 
produced  or  manufactured  in  the  offending  nation,  or  apper- 
taining thereto,  to  be  imported  into  any  of  the  ports  included 
in  the  association,  until  reparation  be  made  to  the  injured  party;, 
the  reparation  to  be  three  times  the  value  of  the  vessel  and 
cargo  ;  and  moreover  that  all  remittances  in  money,  goods,  and 
bills  of  exchange,  do  cease  to  be  made  to  the  offending  nation, 
until  the  said  reparation  be  made.  Were  the  neutral  nations 
only  to  do  this,  which  it  is  their  direct  interest  to  do,  England, 
as  a  nation  depending  on  the  commerce  of  neutral  nations  in 
time  of  war,  dare  not  molest  them,  and  France  would  not. 
But  whilst,  from  want  of  a  common  system,  they  individually 
permit  England  to  do  it,  because  individually  they  cannot 
resist  it,  they  put  France  under  the  necessity  of  doing  the 
same  thing.  The  supreme  of  all  laws,  in  all  cases,  is  that  of 
self-preservation. " 

It  is  a  notable  illustration  of  the  wayward  course 
of  political  evolution,  that  the  English  republic — 
for  it  is  such — grew  largely  out  of  the  very  parts 
of  its  constitution  once  so  oppressive.  The  for- 
eign origin  of  the  royal  family  helped  to  form  its 
wholesome  timidity  about  meddling  with  politics, 
allowing  thus  a  development  of  ministerial  govern- 
ment. The  hereditary  character  of  the  throne, 
which  George  III.'s  half-insane  condition  asso- 
ciated with  the  recklessness  of  irresponsibility, 
was  by  his  complete  insanity  made  to  serve  minis- 
terial  independence.     Regency   is   timid  about 


1797] 


THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL. 


275 


claiming  power,  and  childhood  cannot  exercise  it. 
The  decline  of  royal  and  aristocratic  authority  in 
England  secured  freedom  to  commerce,  which 
necessarily  gave  hostages  to  peace.  The  protec- 
tion of  neutral  commerce  at  sea,  concerning  which 
Paine  wrote  so  much,  ultimately  resulted  from 
English  naval  strength,  which  formerly  scourged 
the  world. 

To  Paine,  England,  at  the  close  of  1797,  could 
appear  only  as  a  dragon-guarded  prison  of  fair 
Humanity.  The  press  was  paralyzed,  thinkers  and 
publishers  were  in  prison,  some  of  the  old  orators 
like  Erskine  were  bought  up,  and  the  forlorn  hope 
of  liberty  rested  only  with  Fox  and  his  fifty  in 
Parliament,  overborne  by  a  majority  made  brutal 
by  strength.  The  groans  of  imprisoned  thought  in 
his  native  land  reached  its  outlawed  representative 
in  Paris.  And  at  the  same  time  the  inhuman  de- 
cree went  forth  from  that  country  that  there  should 
be  no  peace  with  France.  It  had  long  been  his 
conviction  that  the  readiness  of  Great  Britain  to  go 
to  war  was  due  to  an  insular  position  that  kept  the 
horrors  at  a  distance.  War  never  came  home  to 
her.  This  conviction,  which  we  have  several  times 
met  in  these  pages,  returned  to  him  with  new  force 
when  Ensfland  now  insisted  on  more  bloodshed. 
He  was  convinced  that  the  right  course  of  France 
would  be  to  make  a  descent  on  England,  ship  the 
royal  family  to  Hanover,  open  the  political  prisons, 
and  secure  the  people  freedom  to  make  a  Constitu- 
tion. These  views,  freely  expressed  to  his  friends 
of  the  Directory  and  Legislature,  reached  the  ears 
of  Napoleon  on  his  triumphal  return  from  Italy. 


2/6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1797 


The  great  man  called  upon  Paine  in  his  little  room, 
and  invited  him  to  dinner.  He  made  the  eloquent 
professions  of  republicanism  so  characteristic  of 
Napoleons  until  they  became  pretenders.  He  told 
Paine  that  he  slept  with  the  "  Rights  of  Man  " 
under  his  pillow,  and  that  its  author  ought  to  have 
a  statue  of  gold.  ^  He  consulted  Paine  about  a 
descent  on  England,  and  adopted  the  plan.  He 
invited  the  author  to  accompany  the  expedition, 
which  was  to  consist  of  a  thousand  gun-boats,  with 
a  hundred  men  each.  Paine  consented,  "  as  [so  he 
wrote  Jefferson]  the  intention  of  the  expedition  was 
to  give  the  people  of  England  an  opportunity  of 
forming  a  government  for  themselves,  and  thereby 
bring  about  peace."  One  of  the  points  to  be  aimed 
at  was  Norfolk,  and  no  doubt  Paine  indulged  a 
happy  vision  of  standing  once  more  in  Thetford 
and  proclaiming  liberty  throughout  the  land  ! 

The  following  letter  (December  29,  1797)  from 
Paine  to  Barras  is  in  the  archives  of  the  Directory, 
with  a  French  translation  : 

"  Citizen  President, — A  very  particular  friend  of  mine,  who 
had  a  passport  to  go  to  London  upon  some  family  affairs  and 
to  return  in  three  months,  and  whom  I  had  commissioned 
upon  some  affairs  of  my  own  (for  I  find  that  the  English 
government  has  seized  upon  a  thousand  pounds  sterling  which 
I  had  in  the  hands  of  a  friend),  returned  two  days  ago  and 
gave  me  the  memorandum  which  I  enclose  : — the  first  part 
relates  only  to  my  publication  on  the  event  of  the  18  Fructi- 
dor,  and  to  a  letter  to  Erskine  (who  had  been  counsel  for  the 
prosecution  against  a  former  work  of  mine  the  'Age  of 
Reason  ')  both  of  which  I  desired  my  friend  to  publish  in 
London.  The  other  part  of  the  memorandum  respects  the 
state  of  affairs  in  that  country,  by  which  I  see  they  have  little 

'  Rickman,  p.  164. 


1798]  THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL.  277 

or  no  idea  of  a  descent  being  made  upon  them  ;  tant  mieux — 
but  they  will  be  guarded  in  Ireland,  as  they  expect  a  descent 
there. 

"  I  expect  a  printed  copy  of  the  letter  to  Erskine  in  a  day 
or  two.  As  this  is  in  English,  and  on  a  subject  that  will  be 
amusing  to  the  Citizen  Revellifere  Le  Peaux,  I  will  send  it  to 
him.  The  friend  of  whom  I  speak  was  a  pupil  of  Dessault 
the  surgeon,  and  whom  I  once  introduced  to  you  at  a  public 
audience  in  company  with  Captain  Cooper  on  his  plan  respect- 
ing the  Island  of  Bermuda. — Salut  et  Respect." 

Thus  once  again  did  the  great  hope  of  a  Hberated, 
peaceful,  and  republican  Europe  shine  before  simple- 
hearted  Paine.  He  was  rather  poor  now,  but 
gathered  up  all  the  money  he  had,  and  sent  it  to 
the  Council  of  Five  Hundred.  The  accompanying 
letter  was  read  by  Coupe  at  the  sitting  of  January 
28,  1798  : 

"  Citizens  Representatives, — Though  it  is  not  convenient 
to  me,  in  the  present  situation  of  my  affairs,  to  subscribe  to  the 
loan  towards  the  descent  upon  England,  my  economy  permits 
me  to  make  a  small  patriotic  donation.  I  send  a  hundred 
livres,  and  with  it  all  the  wishes  of  my  heart  for  the  success  of 
the  descent,  and  a  voluntary  offer  of  any  service  I  can  render 
to  promote  it. 

"  There  will  be  no  lasting  peace  for  France,  nor  for  the 
world,  until  the  tyranny  and  corruption  of  the  English  govern- 
ment be  abolished,  and  England,  like  Italy,  become  a  sister 
republic.  As  to  those  men,  whether  in  England,  Scotland,  or 
Ireland,  who,  like  Robespierre  in  France,  are  covered  with 
crimes,  they,  like  him,  have  no  other  resource  than  in  commit- 
ting more.  But  the  mass  of  the  people  are  the  friends  of 
liberty  :  tyranny  and  taxation  oppress  them,  but  they  deserve 
to  be  free. 

"  Accept,  Citizens  Representatives,  the  congratulations  of  an 
old  colleague  in  the  dangers  we  have  passed,  and  on  the  happy 
prospect  before  us.    Salut  et  respect. 

"  Thomas  Paine." 


278 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1798 


Coupe  added  :  "  The  gift  which  Thomas  Paine 
offers  you  appears  very  trifling,  when  it  is  com- 
pared with  the  revolting  injustice  which  this  faithful 
friend  of  liberty  has  experienced  from  the  English 
government  ;  but  compare  it  with  the  state  of  pov- 
erty in  which  our  former  colleague  finds  himself, 
and  you  will  then  think  it  considerable."  He 
moved  that  the  notice  of  this  gift  and  Thomas 
Paine's  letter  be  printed.  "  Mention  honorable  et 
impression,"  adds  the  Mo7iite2cr. 

The  President  of  the  Directory  at  this  time  was 
Larevelliere-Lepeaux,  a  friend  of  the  Theophilan- 
thropic  Society.  To  him  Paine  gave,  in  English, 
which  the  president  understood,  a  plan  for  the 
descent,  which  was  translated  into  French,  and 
adopted  by  the  Directory.  Two  hundred  and  fifty 
gun-boats  were  built,  and  the  expedition  abandoned. 
To  Jefferson,  Paine  intimates  his  suspicion  that  it 
was  all  "  only  a  feint  to  cover  the  expedition  to 
Egypt,  which  was  then  preparing."  He  also  states 
that  the  British  descent  on  Ostend,  where  some 
two  thousand  of  them  were  made  prisoners,  "was 
in  search  of  the  gun-boats,  and  to  cut  the  dykes,  to 
prevent  their  being  assembled."  This  he  was  told 
by  Vanhuile,  of  Bruges,  who  heard  it  from  the 
British  officers. 

After  the  failure  of  his  attempt  to  return  to 
America  with  the  Monroes,  Paine  was  for  a  time 
the  guest  of  Nicolas  de  Bonneville,  in  Paris,  and 
the  visit  ended  in  an  arrangement  for  his  abode 
with  that  family.  Bonneville  was  an  editor,  thirty- 
seven  years  of  age,  and  had  been  one  of  the  five 
members    of    Paine's    Republican    Club,  which 


1798]  THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL.  279 

placarded  Paris  with  its  manifesto  after  the  king's 
flight  in  I  79 1.  An  enthusiastic  devotee  of  Paine's 
principles  from  youth,  he  had  advocated  them  in 
his  successive  journals,  Le  Tribun  du  Peuple, 
Bouchc  de  Fer,  and  Bien  hiforme.  He  had 
resisted  Marat  and  Robespierre,  and  suffered  im- 
prisonment during  the  Terror.  He  spoke  English 
fluently,  and  was  well  known  in  the  world  of  letters 
by  some  striking  poems,  also  by  his  translation  into 
French  of  German  tales,  and  parts  of  Shakespeare. 
He  had  set  up  a  printing  office  at  No.  4  Rue  du 
Theatre-Frangais,  where  he  published  liberal  pam- 
phlets, also  his  Bien  Informe.  Then,  in  i  794,  he 
printed  in  French  the  "  Age  of  Reason."  He  also 
published,  and  probably  translated  into  French, 
Paine's  letter  to  the  now  exiled  Camille  Jordan, — 
"  Lettre  de  Thomas  Paine,  sur  les  Cultes."  Paine, 
unable  to  converse  in  French,  found  with  the 
Bonnevilles  a  home  he  needed.  M.  and  Madame 
Bonneville  had  been  married  three  years,  and  their 
second  child  had  been  named  after  Thomas  Paine, 
who  stood  as  his  godfather.  Paine,  as  we  learn 
from  Rickman,  who  knew  the  Bonnevilles,  paid 
board,  but  no  doubt  he  aided  Bonneville  more  by 
his  pen. 

With  public  affairs,  either  in  France  or  America, 
Paine  now  mingled  but  little.  The  election  of  John 
Adams  to  the  presidency  he  heard  of  with  dismay. 
He  wrote  to  Jefferson  that  since  he  was  not  presi- 
dent, he  was  glad  he  had  accepted  the  vice-presi- 
dency, "for  John  Adams  has  such  a  talent  for 
blundering  and  offending,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  keep  an  eye  over  him."    Finding,  by  the  aban- 


28o 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1798 


donment  of  a  descent  on  England  for  one  on  Egypt, 
that  Napoleon  was  by  no  means  his  ideal  mission- 
ary of  republicanism,  he  withdrew  into  his  little 
study,  and  now  remained  so  quiet  that  some  Eng- 
lish papers  announced  his  arrival  and  cool  reception 
in  America.  He  was,  however,  fairly  bored  with 
visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  curious  to  see 
the  one  international  republican  left.  It  became 
necessary  for  Madame  Bonneville,  armed  with 
polite  prevarications,  to  defend  him  from  such 
sight-seers.  For  what  with  his  visits  to  and  from 
the  Barlows,  the  Smiths,  and  his  friends  of  the 
Directory,  Paine  had  too  little  time  for  the  inven- 
tions in  which  he  was  again  absorbed, — -his 
"  Saints."  Among  his  intimate  friends  at  this  time 
was  Robert  Fulton,  then  residing  in  Paris.  Paine's 
extensive  studies  of  the  steam-engine,  and  his  early 
discovery  of  its  adaptability  to  navigation,  had 
caused  Rumsey  to  seek  him  in  England,  and  Fitch 
to  consult  him  both  in  America  and  Paris.  Paine's 
connection  with  the  invention  of  the  steamboat 
was  recognized  by  Fulton,  as  indeed  by  all  of  his 
scientific  contemporaries.^  To  Fulton  he  freely 
gave  his  ideas,  and  may  perhaps  have  had  some 
hope  that  the  steamboat  might  prove  a  missionary 
of  international  republicanism,  though  Napoleon 
had  failed. 

'Sir  Richard  Phillips  says:  "In  1778  Thomas  Paine  proposed,  in 
America,  this  application  of  steam."  ("  Million  of  Facts,"  p.  776.)  As  Sir 
Richard  assisted  Fulton  in  his  experiments  on  the  Thames,  he  probably- 
heard  from  him  the  fact  about  Paine,  though,  indeed,  in  the  controversy 
between  Rumsey  and  Fitch,  Paine's  priority  to  both  was  conceded.  In 
America,  however,  the  priority  really  belonged  to  the  eminent  mechanician 
William  Henry,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.  When  Fitch  visited  Henry,  in  1785,  he 
was  told  by  him  that  he  was  not  the  first  to  devise  steam-navigation  ;  that 


THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL. 


281 


It  will  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the  same  year  in 
which  Paine  startled  William  Henry  with  a  plan 
for  steam-navigation,  namely  in  1778,  he  wrote  his 
sublime  sentence  about  the  "  Religion  of  Hu- 
manity." The  steamships,  which  Emerson  described 
as  enormous  shuttles  weaving  the  races  of  men  into 
the  woof  of  humanity,  have  at  length  rendered  pos- 
sible that  universal  human  religion  which  Paine 
foresaw.  In  that  old  Lancaster  mansion  of  the 
Henrys,  which  still  stands,  Paine  left  his  spectacles, 
now  in  our  National  Museum  ;  they  are  strong  and 
far-seeing ;  through  them  looked  eyes  held  by 
visions  that  the  world  is  still  steadily  following. 
One  cannot  suppress  some  transcendental  senti- 
ment in  view  of  the  mystical  harmony  of  this  man's 
inventions  for  human  welfare, — mechanical,  politi- 
cal, religious.  Of  his  gunpowder  motor,  mention 
has  already  been  made  (i.,  p.  240).  On  this  he  was 
engaged  about  the  time  that  he  was  answering 
Bishop  Watson's  book  on  the  "  Age  of  Reason." 
The  two  occupations  are  related.  He  could  not 
believe,  he  said,  that  the  qualities  of  gunpowder — 
the  small  and  light  grain  with  maximum  of  force — 
were  meant  only  for  murder,  and  his  faith  in  the 
divine  humanity  is  in  the  sentence.    To  supersede 

he  himself  had  thought  of  it  in  1776,  and  mentioned  it  to  Andrew  Ellicott  ; 
and  that  Thomas  Paine,  while  a  guest  at  his  house  in  1778,  had  spoken  to 
him  on  the  subject.  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  John  W.  Jordan,  of  the 
Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  for  notes  from  the  papers  of  Henry,  his 
ancestor,  showing  that  Paine's  scheme  was  formed  without  knowledge  of 
others,  and  that  it  contemplated  a  turbine  application  of  steam  to  a  wheel. 
Both  he  and  Henry,  as  they  had  not  published  their  plans,  agreed  to  leave 
Fitch  the  whole  credit.  Fitch  publicly  expressed  his  gratitude  to  Paine. 
Thurston  adds  that  Paine,  in  1788,  proposed  that  Congress  should  adopt 
the  whole  matter  for  the  national  benefit.  ("  History  of  the  Growth  of  the 
Steam  Engine,"  pp.  252,  253.) 


282 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1798 


destroying  gunpowder  with  beneficent  gunpowder, 
and  to  supersede  the  god  of  battles  with  the  God 
of  Love,  were  kindred  aims  in  Paine's  heart. 
Through  the  fiery  furnaces  of  his  time  he  had  come 
forth  with  every  part  of  his  being  welded  and 
beaten  and  shaped  together  for  this  Human  Service. 
Patriotism,  in  the  conventional  sense,  race-pride, 
sectarianism,  partizanship,  had  been  burnt  out  of 
his  nature.  The  universe  could  not  have  wrung 
from  his  tongue  approval  of  a  wrong  because  it 
was  done  by  his  own  country. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  there  were  no  heavier 
trials  awaiting  Paine's  political  faith  than  those  it 
had  undergone.  But  it  was  becoming  evident  that 
liberty  had  not  the  advantage  he  once  ascribed  to 
truth  over  error, — "  it  cannot  be  unlearned."  The 
United  States  had  unlearned  it  as  far  as  to  put  into 
the  President's  hands  a  power  of  arbitrarily  crush- 
ing political  opponents,  such  as  even  George  III. 
hardly  aspired  to.  The  British  Treaty  had  begun  to 
bear  its  natural  fruits.  Washington  signed  the 
Treaty  to  avoid  war,  and  rendered  war  inevitable 
with  both  France  and  England.  The  affair  with 
France  was  happily  a  transient  squall,  but  it  was 
sufficient  to  again  bring  on  Paine  the  offices  of  an 
American  Minister  in  France.  Many  an  American 
in  that  country  had  occasion  to  appreciate  his 
powerful  aid  and  unfailing  kindness.  Among  these 
was  Captain  Rowland  Crocker  of  Massachusetts, 
who  had  sailed  with  a  letter  of  marque.  His  vessel 
was  captured  by  the  French,  and  its  wounded  com- 
mander brought  to  Paris,  where  he  was  more 
agreeably   conquered   by   kindness.  Freeman's 


1799]  '^^^f-  KEPUBLICAK  ABDIEL.  283 

"  History  of  Cape  Cod"  (of  which  region  Crocker 
was  a  native)  has  the  following  : 

"  His  [Captain  Crocker's]  reminiscences  of  his  residence  in 
that  country,  during  the  most  extraordinary  period  of  its 
history,  were  of  a  highly  interesting  character.  He  had  taken 
the  great  Napoleon  by  the  hand  ;  he  had  familiarly  known 
Paine,  at  a  time  when  his  society  was  sought  for  and  was 
valuable.  Of  this  noted  individual,  we  may  in  passing  say, 
with  his  uniform  and  characteristic  kindness,  he  always  spoke 
in  terms  which  sounded  strange  to  the  ears  of  a  generation 
which  has  been  taught,  with  or  without  justice,  to  regard  the 
author  of  '  The  Age  of  Reason  '  with  loathing  and  abhorrence. 
He  remembered  Paine  as  a  well-dressed  and  most  gentlemanly 
man,  of  sound  and  orthodox  republican  principles,  of  a  good 
heart,  a  strong  i-ntellect,  and  a  fascinating  address." 

The  coup  d'etat  in  America,  which  made  Presi- 
dent Adams  virtual  emperor,  pretended  constitu- 
tionality, and  was  reversible.  That  which  Napoleon 
and  Sieyes — who  had  his  way  at  last — effected  in 
France  (November  9,  i  799)  was  lawless  and  fatal. 
The  peaceful  Bonneville  home  was  broken  up. 
Bonneville,  in  his  Bieit  Informe^  described  Napo- 
leon as  "  a  Cromwell,"  and  was  promptly  imprisoned. 
Paine,  either  before  or  soon  after  this  catastrophe, 
went  to  Belgium,  on  a  visit  to  his  old  friend  Van- 
huile,  who  had  shared  his  cell  in  the  Luxembourg 
prison.  Vanhuile  was  now  president  of  the  muni- 
cipality of  Bruges,  and  Paine  got  from  him  informa- 
tion about  European  affairs.  On  his  return  he 
found  Bonneville  released  from  prison,  but  under 
severe  surveillance,  his  journal  being  suppressed. 
The  family  was  thus  reduced  to  penury  and 
anxiety,  but  there  was  all  the  more  reason  that 
Paine  should  stand  by  them.     He  continued  his 


284 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1800 


abode  in  their  house,  now  probably  supported  by 
drafts  on  his  resources  in  America,  to  which  country 
they  turned  their  thoughts. 

The  European  RepubHc  on  land  having  become 
hopeless,  Paine  turned  his  attention  to  the  seas. 
He  wrote  a  pamphlet  on  "  Maritime  Compact," 
including  in  it  ten  articles  for  the  security  of 
neutral  commerce,  to  be  signed  by  the  nations 
entering  the  "  Unarmed  Association,"  which  he 
proposed.  This  scheme  was  substantially  the  same 
as  that  already  quoted  from  his  letter  "  To  the 
People  of  France,  and  to  the  French  Armies."  It 
was  translated  by  Bonneville,  and  widely  circulated 
in  Europe.  Paine  sent  it  in  manuscript  to  Jeffer- 
son, who  at  once  had  it  printed.  His  accompany- 
ing letter  to  Jefferson  (October  i,  1800)  is  of  too 
much  biographical  interest  to  be  abridged. 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  wrote  to  you  from  Havre  by  the  ship  Dublin 
Packet  in  the  year  1797.  It  was  then  my  intention  to  return 
to  America  ;  but  there  were  so  many  British  frigates  cruising 
in  sight  of  the  port,  and  which  after  a  few  days  knew  that  I  was 
at  Havre  waiting  to  go  to  America,  that  I  did  not  think  it  best 
to  trust  myself  to  their  discretion,  and  the  more  so,  as  I  had  no 
confidence  in  the  Captain  of  the  Dublin  Packet  (Clay).  I 
mentioned  to  you  in  that  letter,  which  I  believe  you  received 
thro'  the  hands  of  Colonel  [Aaron]  Burr,  that  I  was  glad  since 
you  were  not  President  that  you  had  accepted  the  nomination 
of  Vice  President. 

"  The  Commissioners  Ellsworth  &  Co. '  have  been  here  about 
eight  months,  and  three  more  useless  mortals  never  came  upon 

'  Oliver  Ellsworth,  William  V.  Murray,  and  William  R.  Davie,  were  sent 
by  President  Adams  to  France  to  negotiate  a  treaty.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  the  famous  letter  of  Joel  Barlow  to  Washington,  October  2,  1798, 
written  in  the  interest  of  peace,  was  composed  after  consultation  with  Paine. 
Adams,  on  reading  the  letter,  abused  Barlow.     "  Tom  Paine,"  he  said,  "  is 


l8oo]  THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL.  285 

public  business.  Their  presence  appears  to  me  to  have  been 
rather  an  injury  than  a  benefit.  They  set  themselves  up  for  a 
faction  as  soon  as  they  arrived.  I  was  then  in  Belgia.  Upon 
my  return  to  Paris  I  learned  they  had  made  a  point  of  not 
returning  the  visits  of  Mr.  Skipwith  and  Barlow,  because,  they 
said,  they  had  not  the  confidence  of  the  executive.  Every 
known  republican  was  treated  in  the  same  manner.  I  learned 
from  Mr.  Miller  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  occasion  to  see  them 
upon  business,  that  they  did  not  intend  to  return  my  visit,  if  I 
made  one.  This  I  supposed  it  was  intended  I  should  know, 
that  I  might  not  make  one.  It  had  the  contrary  effect.  I 
went  to  see  Mr.  Ellsworth.  I  told  him,  I  did  not  come  to  see 
him  as  a  commissioner,  nor  to  congratulate  him  upon  his  mission  ; 
that  I  came  to  see  him  because  I  had  formerly  known  him  in 
Congress.  I  mean  not,  said  I,  to  press  you  with  any  questions, 
or  to  engage  you  in  any  conversation  upon  the  business  you 
are  come  upon,  but  I  will  nevertheless  candidly  say  that  I  know 
not  what  expectations  the  Government  or  the  people  of  America 
may  have  of  your  mission,  or  what  expectations  you  may  have 
yourselves,  but  I  believe  you  will  find  you  can  do  but  little. 
The  treaty  with  England  lies  at  the  threshold  of  all  your  busi- 
ness. The  American  Government  never  did  two  more  foolish 
things  than  when  it  signed  that  Treaty  and  recalled  Mr.  Mon- 
roe, who  was  the  only  man  could  do  them  any  service.  Mr. 
Ellsworth  put  on  the  dull  gravity  of  a  Judge,  and  was  silent. 
I  added,  you  may  perhaps  make  a  treaty  like  that  you  have 
made  with  England,  which  is  a  surrender  of  the  rights  of  the 
American  flag  ;  for  the  principle  that  neutral  ships  make 
neutral  property  must  be  general  or  not  at  all.  I  then  changed 
the  subject,  for  I  had  all  the  talk  to  myself  upon  this  topic, 
and  enquired  after  Sam.  Adams,  (I  asked  nothing  about  John,) 
Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Monroe,  and  others  of  my  friends,  and  the 
melancholy  case  of  the  yellow  fever, — of  which  he  gave  me  as 
circumstantial  an  account  as  if  he  had  been  summing  up  a  case 
to  a  Jury.    Here  my  visit  ended,  and  had  Mr.  Ellsworth  been 

not  a  more  worthless  fellow."  But  he  obeyed  the  letter.  The  Commission- 
ers he  sent  were  associated  with  the  anti-French  and  British  party  in  America, 
but  peace  with  America  was  of  too  much  importance  to  the  new  despot  of 
France  for  the  opportunity  to  be  missed  of  forming  a  Treaty. 


286  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1800 

as  cunning  as  a  statesman,  or  as  wise  as  a  Judge,  he  would 
have  returned  my  visit  that  he  might  appear  insensible  of  the 
intention  of  mine. 

"  I  now  come  to  the  affairs  of  this  country  and  of  Europe. 
You  will,  I  suppose,  have  heard  before  this  arrives  to  you,  of 
the  battle  of  Marengo  in  Italy,  where  the  Austrians  were 
defeated — of  the  armistice  in  consequence  thereof,  and  the 
surrender  of  Milan,  Genoa,  etc.,  to  the  french — of  the  successes 
of  the  french  army  in  Germany — and  the  extension  of  the 
armistice  in  that  quarter — of  the  preliminaries  of  peace  signed 
at  Paris — of  the  refusal  of  the  Emperor  [of  Austria]  to  ratify 
these  preliminaries — of  the  breaking  of  the  armistice  by  the 
french  Government  in  consequence  of  that  refusal — of  the 
'  gallant '  expedition  of  the  Emperor  to  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  his  Army — of  his  pompous  arrival  there — of  his  having  made 
his  will — of  prayers  being  put  in  all  his  churches  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  life  of  this  Hero — of  General  Moreau  an- 
nouncing to  him,  immediately  on  his  arrival  at  the  Army,  that 
hostilities  would  commence  the  day  after  the  next  at  sunrise, 
unless  he  signed  the  treaty  or  gave  security  that  he  would  sign 
within  45  days — of  his  surrendering  up  three  of  the  principal 
keys  of  Germany  (Ulm,  Philipsbourg,  and  Ingolstad),  as  secu- 
rity that  he  would  sign  them.  This  is  the  state  things  [they] 
are  now  in,  at  the  time  of  writing  this  letter  ;  but  it  is  proper  to 
add  that  the  refusal  of  the  Emperor  to  sign  the  preliminaries 
was  motived  upon  a  note  from  the  King  of  England  to  be 
admitted  to  the  Congress  for  negociating  Peace,  which  was 
consented  to  by  the  french  upon  the  condition  of  an  armistice 
at  Sea,  which  England,  before  knowing  of  the  surrender  the 
Emperor  had  made,  had  refused.  From  all  which  it  appears  to 
me,  judging  from  circumstances,  that  the  Emperor  is  now  so 
compleatly  in  the  hands  of  the  french,  that  he  has  no  way  of 
getting  out  but  by  a  peace.  The  Congress  for  the  peace  is  to 
be  held  at  Luneville,  a  town  in  france.  Since  the  affair  of 
Rastadt  the  french  commissioners  will  not  trust  themselves 
within  the  Emperor's  territory. 

"  I  now  come  to  domestic  affairs.  I  know  not  what  the  Com- 
missioners have  done,  but  from  a  paper  I  enclose  to  you,  which 
appears  to  have  some  authority,  it  is  not  much.    The  paper  as 


i8oo] 


THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL.         '  287 


you  will  perceive  is  considerably  prior  to  this  letter.  I  knew 
that  the  Commissioners  before  this  piece  appeared  intended 
setting  off.  It  is  therefore  probable  that  what  they  have  done 
is  conformable  to  what  this  paper  mentions,  which  certainly 
will  not  atone  for  the  expence  their  mission  has  incurred, 
neither  are  they,  by  all  the  accounts  I  hear  of  them,  men  fitted 
for  the  business. 

"  But  independently  of  these  matters  there  appears  to  be  a 
state  of  circumstances  rising,  which  if  it  goes  on,  will  render  all 
partial  treaties  unnecessary.  In  the  first  place  I  doubt  if  any 
peace  will  be  made  with  England  ;  and  in  the  second  place,  I 
should  not  wonder  to  see  a  coalition  formed  against  her,  to 
compel  her  to  abandon  her  insolence  on  the  seas.  This  brings 
me  to  speak  of  the  manuscripts  I  send  you. 

"  The  piece  No.  i,  without  any  title,  was  written  in  con- 
sequence of  a  question  put  to  me  by  Bonaparte.  As  he 
supposed  I  knew  England  and  English  Politics  he  sent  a  person 
to  me  to  ask,  that  in  case  of  negociating  a  Peace  with  Austria, 
whether  it  would  be  proper  to  include  England.  This  was  when 
Count  St.  Julian  was  in  Paris,  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor 
negociating  the  preliminaries  : — which  as  I  have  before  said  the 
Emperor  refused  to  sign  on  the  pretence  of  admitting  England. 

"  The  piece  No.  2,  entitled  On  the  Jacobinis7ii  of  the  Eng- 
lish at  Sea,  was  written  when  the  English  made  their  insolent 
and  impolitic  expedition  to  Denmark,  and  is  also  an  auxiliary 
to  the  politic  of  No.  i.  I  shewed  it  to  a  friend  [Bonneville] 
who  had  it  translated  into  french,  and  printed  in  the  form  of 
a  Pamphlet,  and  distributed  gratis  among  the  foreign  Ministers, 
and  persons  in  the  Government.  It  was  immediately  copied 
into  several  of  the  french  Journals,  and  into  the  official  Paper, 
the  Moniteur.  It  appeared  in  this  paper  one  day  before  the 
last  dispatch  arrived  from  Egypt ;  which  agreed  perfectly  with 
what  I  had  said  respecting  Egypt.  It  hit  the  two  cases  of 
Denmark  and  Egypt  in  the  exact  proper  moment. 

"  The  piece  No.  3,  entitled  Compact  Maritime,  is  the  sequel 
of  No.  2  digested  in  form.  It  is  translating  at  the  time  I  write 
this  letter,  and  I  am  to  have  a  meeting  with  the  Senator  Garat 
upon  the  subject.  The  pieces  2  and  3  go  off  in  manuscript  to 
England,  by  a  confidential  person,  where  they  will  be  published. 


288 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1800 


"  By  all  the  news  we  get  from  the  North  there  appears  to  be 
something  meditating  against  England.  It  is  now  given  for 
certain  that  Paul  has  embargoed  all  the  English  vessels  and 
English  property  in  Russia  till  some  principle  be  established 
for  protecting  the  Rights  of  neutral  Nations,  and  securing  the 
liberty  of  the  Seas.  The  preparations  in  Denmark  continue, 
notwithstanding  the  convention  that  she  has  made  with  Eng- 
land, which  leaves  the  question  with  respect  to  the  right  set  up 
by  England  to  stop  and  search  Neutral  vessels  undecided.  I 
send  you  the  paragraphs  upon  the  subject. 

"  The  tumults  are  great  in  all  parts  of  England  on  account 
of  the  excessive  price  of  corn  and  bread,  which  has  risen  since 
the  harvest.  I  attribute  it  more  to  the  abundant  increase  of 
paper,  and  the  non-circulation  of  cash,  than  to  any  other  cause. 
People  in  trade  can  push  the  paper  off  as  fast  as  they  receive  it, 
as  they  did  by  continental  money  in  America  ;  but  as  farmers 
have  not  this  opportunity  they  endeavor  to  secure  themselves 
by  going  considerably  in  advance. 

"  I  have  now  given  you  all  the  great  articles  of  intelligence, 
for  I  trouble  not  myself  with  little  ones,  and  consequently  not 
with  the  Commissioners,  nor  any  thing  they  are  about,  nor 
with  John  Adams,  otherwise  than  to  wish  him  safe  home,  and 
a  better  and  wiser  man  in  his  place. 

"  In  the  present  state  of  circumstances  and  the  prospects 
arising  from  them,  it  may  be  proper  for  America  to  consider 
whether  it  is  worth  her  while  to  enter  into  any  treaty  at  this 
moment,  or  to  wait  the  event  of  those  circumstances  which,  if 
they  go  on  will  render  partial  treaties  useless  by  deranging 
them.  But  if,  in  the  mean  time,  she  enters  into  any  treaty  it 
ought  to  be  with  a  condition  to  the  following  purpose  :  Reserv- 
ing to  herself  the  right  of  joining  in  an  association  of  Nations 
for  the  protection  of  the  Rights  of  Neutral  Commerce  and  the 
security  of  the  liberty  of  the  Seas. 

"The  pieces  2,  3,  may  go  to  the  press.  They  will  make  a 
small  pamphlet  and  the  printers  are  welcome  to  put  my  name 
to  it.  It  is  best  it  should  be  put  from  thence  ;  they  will  get 
into  the  newspapers.  I  know  that  the  faction  of  John  Adams 
abuses  me  pretty  heartily.  They  are  welcome.  It  does  not 
disturb  me,  and  they  lose  their  labour  ;  and  in  return  for  it  I 


i8oo] 


THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL. 


289 


am  doing  America  more  service,  as  a  neutral  nation,  than  their 
expensive  Commissioners  can  do,  and  she  has  that  service 
from  me  for  nothing.  The  piece  No.  i  is  only  for  your  own 
amusement  and  that  of  your  friends. 

"  I  come  now  to  speak  confidentially  to  you  on  a  private 
-subject.  When  Mr.  Ellsworth  and  Davie  return  to  America, 
Murray  will  return  to  Holland,  and  in  that  case  there  will  be 
nobody  in  Paris  but  Mr.  Skipwith  that  has  been  in  the  habit 
of  transacting  business  with  the  french  Government  since  the 
revolution  began.  He  is  on  a  good  standing  with  them,  and 
if  the  chance  of  the  day  should  place  you  in  the  presi- 
dency you  cannot  do  better  than  appoint  him  for  any  purpose 
you  may  have  occasion  for  in  France.  He  is  an  honest  man 
and  will  do  his  country  Justice,  and  that  with  civility  and 
good  manners  to  the  government  he  is  commissioned  to  act 
with  ;  a  faculty  which  that  Northern  Bear  Timothy  Pickering 
wanted,  and  which  the  Bear  of  that  Bear,  John  Adams,  never 
possessed. 

"I  know  not  much  of  Mr.  Murray,  otherwise  than  of  his 
unfriendliness  to  every  American  who  is  not  of  his  faction,  but 
I  am  sure  that  Joel  Barlow  is  a  much  fitter  man  to  be  in  Hol- 
land than  Mr.  Murray.  It  is  upon  the  fitness  of  the  man  to 
the  place  that  I  speak,  for  I  have  not  communicated  a  thought 
upon  the  subject  to  Barlow,  neither  does  he  know,  at  the  time 
of  my  writing  this  (for  he  is  at  Havre),  that  I  have  intention 
to  do  it. 

"I  will  now,  by  way  of  relief,  amuse  you  with  some  account 
of  the  progress  of  Iron  Bridges.  The  french  revolution  and 
Mr.  Burke's  attack  upon  it,  drew  me  off  from  any  pontifical 
Works.  Since  my  coming  from  England  in  '92,  an  Iron 
Bridge  of  a  single  arch  236  feet  span  versed  sine  34  feet,  has 
been  cast  at  the  Iron  Works  of  the  Walkers  where  my  model 
was,  and  erected  over  the  river  Wear  at  Sunderland  in  the 
county  of  Durham  in  England.  The  two  members  in  Parlia- 
ment for  the  County,  Mr.  Bourdon  and  Mr.  Milbank,  were  the 
principal  subscribers  ;  but  the  direction  was  committed  to  Mr. 
Bourdon.  A  very  sincere  friend  of  mine.  Sir  Robert  Smyth, 
who  lives  in  france,  and  whom  Mr.  Monroe  well  knows,  sup- 
posing they  had  taken  their  plan  from  my  model  wrote  to  Mr. 

VOL.  II. — 19 


290 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1800 


Milbank  upon  the  subject.  Mr.  Milbank  answered  the  letter, 
which  answer  I  have  by  me  and  I  give  you  word  for  word  the 
part  concerning  the  Bridge  :  '  With  respect  to  the  Bridge 
over  the  river  Wear  at  Sunderland  it  certainly  is  a  Work  well 
deserving  admiration  both  for  its  structure,  durability  and 
utility,  and  I  have  good  grounds  for  saying  that  the  first  Idea 
was  taken  from  Mr.  Paine's  bridge  "exhibited  at  Paddington. 
But  with  respect  to  any  compensation  to  Mr.  Paine,  however 
desirous  of  rewarding  the  labours  of  an  ingenious  man,  I  see 
not  how  it  is  in  my  power,  having  had  nothing  to  do  with  his 
bridge  after  the  payment  of  my  subscription,  Mr.  Bourdon 
being  accountable  for  the  whole.  But  if  you  can  point  out 
any  mode  by  which  I  can  be  instrumental  in  procuring  for  Mr. 
P.  any  compensation  for  the  advantages  which  the  public  may 
have  derived  from  his  ingenious  model,  from  which  certamly 
the  outlines  of  the  Bridge  at  Sunderland  was  taken,  be  assured 
it  will  afford  me  very  great  satisfaction.' 

"  I  have  now  made  two  other  models,  one  is  pasteboard, 
five  feet  span  and  five  inches  of  height  from  the  cords.  It 
is  in  the  opinion  of  every  person  who  has  seen  it  one  of  the 
most  beautifull  objects  the  eye  can  behold.  I  then  cast  a 
model  in  Metal  following  the  construction  of  that  in  pasteboard 
and  of  the  same  dimensions.  The  whole  was  executed  in  my 
own  Chamber.  It  is  far  superior  in  strength,  elegance,  and 
readiness  in  execution  to  the  model  I  made  in  America,  and 
which  you  saw  in  Paris.  I  shall  bring  those  Models  with  me 
when  I  come  home,  which  will  be  as  soon  as  I  can  pass  the 
seas  in  safety  from  the  piratical  John  Bulls. 

"  I  suppose  you  have  seen,  or  have  heard  of  the  Bishop  of 
Landaff's  answer  to  my  second  part  of  the  Age  of  reason. 
As  soon  as  I  got  a  copy  of  it  I  began  a  third  part,  which 
served  also  as  an  answer  to  the  Bishop  ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
clerical  Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge  knew  of 
my  intention  to  answer  the  Bishop,  they  prosecuted,  as  a 
Society,  the  printer  of  the  first  and  second  parts,  to  prevent 
that  answer  appearing.  No  other  reason  than  this  can  be 
assigned  for  their  prosecuting  at  the  time  they  did,  because 
the  first  part  had  been  in  circulation  above  three  years  and  the 
second  part  more  than  one,  and  they  prosecuted  immediately 


i8oo] 


THE  REPUBLICAN  ABDIEL. 


291 


on  knowing  that  I  was  taking  up  their  Champion.  The 
Bishop's  answer,  like  Mr.  Burke's  attack  on  the  french  revo- 
lution, served  me  as  a  back-ground  to  bring  forward  other 
subjects  upon,  with  more  advantage  than  if  the  background  was 
not  there.  This  is  the  motive  that  induced  me  to  answer  him, 
otherwise  I  should  have  gone  on  without  taking  any  notice  of 
him.  I  have  made  and  am  still  making  additions  to  the  manu- 
script, and  shall  continue  to  do  so  till  an  opportunity  arrive 
for  publishing  it. 

"  If  any  American  frigate  should  come  to  france,  and  the 
direction  of  it  fall  to  you,  I  will  be  glad  you  would  give  me 
the  opportunity  of  returning.  The  abscess  under  which  I 
suffered  almost  two  years  is  entirely  healed  of  itself,  and  I 
enjoy  exceeding  good  health.  This  is  the  first  of  October, 
and  Mr.  Skipwith  has  just  called  to  tell  me  the  Commissioners 
set  off  for  Havre  tomorrow.  This  will  go  by  the  frigate  but 
not  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Commissioners.  Remember  me 
with  much  affection  to  my  friends  and  accept  the  same  to 
yourself." 

As  the  Commissioners  did  not  leave  when  they 
expected,  Paine  added  several  other  letters  to  Jef- 
ferson, on  public  affairs.  In  one  (October  ist)  he 
says  he  has  information  of  increasing  aversion  in 
the  English  people  to  their  government.  "  It  was 
the  hope  of  conquest,  and  is  now  the  hope  of  peace 
that  keeps  it  [Pitt's  administration]  up,"  Pitt  is 
anxious  about  his  paper  money.  "  The  credit  of 
Paper  is  suspicion  asleep.  When  suspicion  wakes 
the  credit  vanishes  as  the  dream  would."  "  England 
has  a  large  Navy,  and  the  expense  of  it  leads  to  her 
ruin."  The  English  nation  is  tired  of  war,  longs 
for  peace,  "  and  calculates  upon  defeat  as  it  would 
upon  victory."  On  October  4th,  after  the  Commis- 
sioners had  concluded  a  treaty,  Paine  alludes  to  an 
article  said  to  be  in  it,  requiring  certain  expendi- 
tures in  France,  and  says  that  if  he,  Jefferson,  be 


292 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1800 


"  in  the  chair,  and  not  otherwise,"  he  should  offer 
himself  for  this  business,  should  an  agent  be  re- 
quired. "It  will  serve  to  defray  my  expenses  until 
I  can  return,  but  I  wish  it  may  be  with  the  condi- 
tion of  returning.  I  am  not  tired  of  working  for 
nothing,  but  I  cannot  afford  it.  This  appointment 
will  aid  me  in  promoting  the  object  I  am  now  upon 
of  a  law  of  nations  for  the  protection  of  neutral 
commerce."  On  October  6th  he  reports  to  Jeffer- 
son that  at  an  entertainment  given  the  American 
envoys,  Consul  Le  Brun  gave  the  toast :  "  A  I'union 
de  I'Amerique  avec  les  puissances  du  Nord  pour 
faire  respecter  la  liberte  des  mers."  On  October 
15th  the  last  of  his  enclosures  to  Jefferson  is  written. 
He  says  that  Napoleon,  when  asked  if  there  would 
be  more  war,  replied  :  "  Nous  n'aurions  plus  qu'une 
guerre  d'ecritoire."  In  all  of  Paine's  writing  about 
Napoleon,  at  this  time,  he  seems  as  if  watching  a 
thundercloud,  and  trying  to  make  out  meteorologi- 
cally its  drift,  and  where  it  will  strike. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE. 

On  July  15,  1801,  Napoleon  concluded  with  Pius 
VII.  the  Concordat.  Naturally,  the  first  victim 
offered  on  the  restored  altar  was  Theophilan- 
thropy.  I  have  called  Paine  the  founder  of  this 
Society,  because  it  arose  amid  the  controversy  ex- 
cited by  the  publication  of  "  Le  Siecle  de  la  Rai- 
son,"  its  manual  and  tracts  reproducing  his  ideas 
aud  language  ;  and  because  he  gave  the  inaugural 
discourse.  Theism  was  little  known  in  France  save 
as  iconoclasm,  and  an  assault  on  the  Church  :  Paine 
treated  it  as  a  Religion.  But,  as  he  did  not  speak 
French,  the  practical  organization  and  management 
of  the  Society  were  the  work  of  others,  and  mainly 
of  a  Russian  named  Hauey.  There  had  been  a 
good  deal  of  odium  incurred  at  first  by  a  society 
which  satisfied  neither  the  pious  nor  the  freethink- 
ers, but  it  found  a  strong  friend  on  the  Directory. 
This  was  Larevelliere-Lepeaux,  whose  secretary, 
Antoine  Vallee,  and  young  daughter,  had  become 
interested  in  the  movement.  This  statesman  never 
joined  the  Society,  but  he  had  attended  one  of  its 
meetings,  and,  when  a  distribution  of  religious  edi- 
fices was  made,  Theophilanthropy  was  assigned  tf^n 
parish  churches.    It  is  said  that  when  Larevelliere- 

293 


294 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1801 


Lepeaux  mentioned  to  Talleyrand  his  desire  for  the 
spread  of  this  Society,  the  diplomat  said  :  "  All  you 
have  to  do  is  to  get  yourself  hanged,  and  revive  the 
third  day."  Paine,  who  had  pretty  nearly  fulfilled 
that  requirement,  saw  the  Society  spread  rapidly, 
and  he  had  great  hopes  of  its  future.  But  Pius 
VII.  also  had  an  interested  eye  on  it,  and  though 
the  Concordat  did  not  go  into  legal  operation 
until  1802,  Theophilanthropy  was  offered  as  a  pre- 
liminary sacrifice  in  October,  1801. 

The  description  of  Paine  by  Walter  Savage  Lan- 
dor,  and  representations  of  his  talk,  in  the  "  Imagi- 
nary Conversations,"  so  mix  up  persons,  times,  and 
places,  that  I  was  at  one  time  inclined  to  doubt 
whether  the  two  had  met.  But  Mr.  J.  M.  Wheeler, 
a  valued  correspondent  in  London,  writes  me : 
"  Landor  told  my  friend  Mr.  Birch  of  Florence  that 
he  particularly  admired  Paine,  and  that  he  visited 
him,  having  first  obtained  an  interview  at  the  house 
of  General  Dumouriez.  Landor  declared  that 
Paine  was  always  called  '  Tom,'  not  out  of  disre- 
spect, but  because  he  was  a  jolly  good  fellow."  An 
interview  with  Paine  at  the  house  of  Dumouriez 
could  only  have  occurred  when  the  General  was  in 
Paris,  in  1793.  This  would  account  for  what  Lan- 
dor says  of  Paine  taking  refuge  from  trouble  in 
brandy.  There  had  been,  as,  Rickman  testifies, 
and  as  all  the  facts  show,  nothing  of  this  kind 
since  that  period.  It  would  appear  therefore  that 
Landor  must  have  mixed  up  at  least  two  inter- 
views with  Paine,  one  in  the  time  of  Dumouriez, 
the  other  in  that  of  Napoleon.  Not  even  such 
an  artist  as  Landor  could  invent  the  language 


l8oi]  THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE. 


295 


ascribed  to  Paine  concerning  the  French  and 
Napoleon. 

"  The  whole  nation  may  be  made  as  enthusiastic  about  a  salad 
as  about  a  constitution  ;  about  the  colour  of  a  cockade  as  about 
a  consul  or  a  king.  You  will  shortly  see  the  real  strength  and 
figure  of  Bonaparte.  He  is  wilful,  headstrong,  proud,  morose, 
presumptuous  ;  he  will  be  guided  no  longer  ;  he  has  pulled  the 
pad  from  his  forehead,  and  will  break  his  nose  or  bruise  his 
cranium  against  every  table,  chair,  and  brick  in  the  room,  until 
at  last  he  must  be  sent  to  the  hospital." 

Paine  prophesies  that  Napoleon  will  make  him- 
self emperor,  and  that  "  by  his  intemperate  use  of 
power  and  thirst  of  dominion  "  he  will  cause  the 
people  to  "wish  for  their  old  kings,  forgetting  what 
beasts  they  were."  Possibly  under  the  name 
"  Mr.  Normandy"  Landor  disguises  Thomas  Poole, 
referred  to  on  a  preceding  page.  Normandy's  suf- 
ferings on  account  of  one  of  Paine's  books  are  not 
exaggerated.  In  Mrs.  Sanford's  work  is  printed  a 
letter  from  Paris,  July  20,  1802,  in  which  Poole 
says :  "  I  called  one  morning  on  Thomas  Paine. 
He  is  an  original,  amusing  fellow.  Striking,  strong 
physiognomy.  Said  a  great  many  quaint  things,  and 
read  us  part  of  a  reply  which  he  intends  to  publish 
to  Watson's  '  Apology.'  " 

.  Paine  seems  to  have  had  no  relation  with  the 
ruling  powers  at  this  time,  though  an  Englishman 
who  visited  him  is  quoted  by  Rickman  (p.  198)  as 
remarking  his  manliness  and  fearlessness,  and  that 
he  spoke  as  freely  as  ever  after  Bonaparte's  su- 
premacy. One  communication  only  to  any  mem- 
ber of  the  government  appears  ;  this  was  to  the 

'  "  Thomas  Poole  and  His  Friends,"  ii.,  p.  85. 


296 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i8or 


Minister  of  the  Interior  concerning  a  proposed  iron 
bridge  over  the  Seine.'  Political  France  and 
Paine  had  parted. 

Under  date  of  March  18,  1801,  President  Jeffer- 
son informs  Paine  that  he  had  sent  his  manuscripts 
(Maritime  Compact)  to  the  printer  to  be  made  into 
a  pamphlet,  and  that  the  American  people  had 
returned  from  their  frenzy  against  France.  He 
adds  : 

"  You  expressed  a  wish  to  get  a  passage  to  this  country  in  a 
public  vessel.  Mr.  Dawson  is  charged  with  orders  to  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Maryland  to  receive  and  accommodate  you  back  if 
you  can  be  ready  to  depart  at  such  short  warning.  Rob.  R. 
Livingston  is  appointed  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the  re- 
public of  France,  but  will  not  leave  this  till  we  receive  the 
ratification  of  the  convention  by  Mr.  Dawson.^  I  am  in  hopes 
you  will  find  us  returned  generally  to  sentiments  worthy  of 
former  times.  In  these  it  will  be  your  glory  to  have  steadily 
labored,  and  with  as  much  effect  as  any  man  living.  That  you 
may  long  live  to  continue  your  useful  labors  and  to  reap  the 
reward  in  the  thankfulness  of  nations,  is  my  sincere  prayer. 
Accept  assurances  of  my  high  esteem  and  affectionate  attach- 
ment." 

'  "  The  Minister  of  the  Interior  to  Thomas  Paine  :  I  have  received. 
Citizen,  the  observations  that  you  have  been  so  good  as  to  address  to  me 
upon  the  construction  of  iron  bridges.  They  will  be  of  the  greatest  utility 
to  us  when  the  new  kind  of  construction  goes  to  be  executed  for  the  first 
time.  With  pleasure  I  assure  you,  Citizen,  that  you  have  rights  of  more 
than  one  kind  to  the  gratitude  of  nations,  and  I  give  you,  cordially,  the 
expression  of  my  particular  esteem. — Chaptal.  " 

It  is  rather  droll,  considering  the  appropriation  of  his  patent  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  confiscation  of  a  thousand  pounds  belonging  to  him,  to  find 
Paine  casually  mentioning  that  at  this  time  a  person  came  from  London 
with  plans  and  drawings  to  consult  with  him  about  an  iron  arch  of  600  feet, 
over  the  Thames,  then  under  consideration  by  a  committee  of  the  House  o£ 
Commons. 

^  ' '  Beau  Dawson,"  an  eminent  Virginia  Congressman. 


i8o2]  THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE.  297 

The  subjoined  notes  are  from  letters  of  Paine  to 
Jefferson  : 

Paris,  yune  g,  1801.  "  Your  very  friendly  letter  by  Mr. 
Dawson  gave  me  the  real  sensation  of  happy  satisfaction,  and 
what  served  to  increase  it  was  that  he  brought  it  to  me  himself 
before  I  knew  of  his  arrival.  I  congratulate  America  on  your 
election.  There:  has  been  no  circumstance  with  respect  to 
America  since  the  times  of  her  revolution  that  excited  so  much 
attention  and  expectation  in  France,  England,  Ireland,  and 
Scotland  as  the  pending  election  for  President  of  the  United 
States,  nor  any  of  which  the  event  has  given  more  general 
joy  : 

"  I  thank  you  for  the  opportunity  you  give  me  of  returning 
by  the  Maryland,  but  I  shall  wait  the  return  of  the  vessel  that 
brings  Mr.  Livingston." 

Paris,  June  2j,  1801.  '*  The  Parliamentaire,  from  America 
to  Havre,  was  taken  in  going  out,  and  carried  into  England. 
The  pretence,  as  the  papers  say,  was  that  a  Swedish  Minister 
was  on  board  for  America.  If  I  had  happened  to  have  been 
there,  I  suppose  they  would  have  made  no  ceremony  in  con- 
ducting me  on  shore." 

Paris,  March  77,  1802.  "  As  it  is  now  Peace,  though  the 
definitive  Treaty  is  not  yet  signed,  I  shall  set  off  by  the  first 
opportunity  from  Havre  or  Dieppe,  after  the  equinoctial  gales 
are  over.  I  continue  in  excellent  health,  which  I  know 
your  friendship  will  be  glad  to  hear  of. — Wishing  you  and 
America  every  happiness,  I  '  remain  your  former  fellow- 
labourer  and  much  obliged  fellow-citizen. 

Paine's  determination  not  to  return  to  America 
in  a  national  vessel  was  owing  to  a  paragraph  he 
saw  in  a  Baltimore  paper,  headed  "  Out  at  Last." 
It  stated  that  Paine  had  written  to  the  Presi- 
dent, expressing  a  wish  to  return  by  a  national 
ship,  and  that  "  permission  was  given."  There 
was  here  an  indication  that  Jefferson's  invitation  to 
Paine  by  the  Hon.  John  Dawson   had  become 


298  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1802 

known  to  the  President's  enemies,  and  that  Jeffer- 
son, on  being  attacked,  had  apologized  by  making 
the  matter  appear  an  act  of  charity.  Paine  would 
not  believe  that  the  President  was  personally 
responsible  for  the  apologetic  paragraph,  which 
seemed  inconsistent  with  the  cordiality  of  the  let- 
ter brought  by  Dawson ;  but,  as  he  afterwards 
wrote  to  Jefferson,  "it  determined  me  not  to  come 
by  a  national  ship."'  His  request  had  been  made 
at  a  time  when  any  other  than  a  national  American 
ship  was  pretty  certain  to  land  him  in  an  English 
prison.  There  was  evidently  no  thought  of  any 
eclat  in  the  matter,  but  no  doubt  a  regard  for 
economy  as  well  as  safety. 

The  following  to  the  eminent  deist  lecturer  in 
New  York,  Elihu  Palmer,  bears  the  date,  "  Paris, 
February  21,  1802,  since  the  Fable  of  Christ"  : 

"  Dear  Friend,  I  received,  by  Mr.  Livingston,  the  letter 
you  wrote  me,  and  the  excellent  work  you  have  published  ["The 
Principles  of  Nature"].  I  see  you  have  thought  deeply  on  the 
subject,  and  expressed  your  thoughts  in  a  strong  and  clear 
style.  The  hinting  and  intimating  manner  of  writing  that 
was  formerly  used  on  subjects  of  this  kind,  produced  skepti- 
cism, but  not  conviction.  It  is  necessary  to  be  bold.  Some 
people  can  be  reasoned  into  sense,  and  others  must  be  shocked 
into  it.  Say  a  bold  thing  that  will  stagger  them,  and  they  will 
begin  to  think. 

^  It  was  cleared  up  afterwards.  Jefferson  had  been  charged  with  sending 
a  national  ship  to  France  for  the  sole  purpose  of  bringing  Paine  home,  and 
Paine  himself  would  have  been  the  first  to  condemn  such  an  assumption  of 
power.  Although  the  President's  adherents  thought  it  right  to  deny  this, 
Jefferson  wrote  to  Paine  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  paragraph. 
"  With  respect  to  the  letter  [offering  the  ship]  I  never  hesitate  to  avow  and 
justify  it  in  conversation.  In  no  other  way  do  I  trouble  myself  to  contradict 
anything  which  is  said.  At  that  time,  however,  there  were  anomalies  in  the 
motions  of  some  of  our  friends  which  events  have  at  length  reduced  to  regu- 
larity." 


l8o2]  THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE.  299 

"There  is  an  intimate  friend  of  mine,  Colonel  Joseph  Kirk- 
bride  of  Bordentown,  New  Jersey,  to  whom  I  would  wish  you 
to  send  your  work.  He  is  an  excellent  man,  and  perfectly  in 
our  sentiments.  You  can  send  it  by  the  stage  that  goes  partly 
by  land  and  partly  by  water,  between  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, and  passes  through  Bordentown. 

"  I  expect  to  arrive  in  America  in  May  next.  I  have  a  third 
part  of  the  Age  of  Reason  to  publish  when  I  arrive,  which,  if  I 
mistake  not,  will  make  a  stronger  impression  than  any  thing  I 
have  yet  published  on  the  subject. 

"  I  write  this  by  an  ancient  colleague  of  mine  in  the  French 
Convention,  the  citizen  Lequinio,  who  is  going  [as]  Consul  to 
Rhode  Island,  and  who  waits  while  I  write.'  Yours  in  friend- 
ship." 

The  following,  dated  July  8,  1802,  to  Consul 
Rotch,  is  the  last  letter  I  find  written  by  Paine 
from  Paris  : 

"  My  Dear  Friend, — The  bearer  of  this  is  a  young  man 
that  wishes  to  go  to  America.  He  is  willing  to  do  anything  on 
board  a  ship  to  lesson  the  expense  of  his  passage.  If  you  know 
any  captain  to  whom  such  a  person  may  be  usefuU  I  will  be 
obliged  to  you  to  speak  to  him  about  it. 

"  As  Mr.  Otte  was  to  come  to  Paris  in  order  to  go  to  America, 
I  wanted  to  take  a  passage  Avith  him,  but  as  he  stays  in  England 
to  negociate  some  arrangements  of  Commerce,  I  have  given  up 
that  idea.  I  wait  now  for  the  arrival  of  a  person  from  England 
whom  I  want  to  see,"  after  which,  I  shall  bid  adieu  to  restless 
and  wretched  Europe.  I  am  with  affectionate  esteem  to  you 
and  Mrs.  Rotch, 

"  Yours, 

"  Thomas  Paine." 

The  President's  cordial  letter  had  raised  a  happy 
vision  before  the  eyes  of  one  sitting  amid  the  ruins 

'  J.  M.  Lequinio,  author  of  "  Prejudices  Destroyed,"  and  other  rationalistic 
works,  especially  dealt  with  in  Priestley's  "  Letters  to  the  Philosophers  of 
France." 

*  No  doubt  Clio  Rickman. 


300  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l8o2 

of  his  republican  world.  As  he  said  of  Job,  he  had 
"determined,  in  the  midst  of  accumulating  ills,  to 
impose  upon  himself  the  hard  duty  of  content- 
ment." Of  the  comrades  with  whom  he  beean  the 
struggle  for  liberty  in  France  but  a  small  circle  re- 
mained. As  he  wrote  to  Lady  Smith, — from  whom 
he  must  now  part, — "  I  might  almost  say  like  Job's 
servant,  'and  I  only  am  escaped.'"  Of  the  Ameri- 
can and  English  friends  who  cared  for  him  when 
he  came  out  of  prison  few  remain. 

The  President's  letter  came  to  a  poor  man  in  a 
small  room,  furnished  only  with  manuscripts  and 
models  of  inventions.  Here  he  was  found  by  an 
old  friend  from  England,  Henry  Redhead  Yorke, 
who,  in  1795,  had  been  tried  in  England  for 
sedition.  Yorke  has  left  us  a  last  glimpse  of  the 
author  in  "wretched  and  restless  Europe."  The 
"  rights  of  man "  had  become  so  antiquated  in 
Napoleon's  France,  that  Yorke  found  Paine's 
name  odious  on  account  of  his  antislavery  writ- 
ings, the  people  "  ascribing  to  his  espousal  of 
the  rights  of  the  negroes  of  St.  Domingo  the 
resistance  which  Leclercq  had  experienced  from 
them."  He  found  Paine  in  No.  4  Rue  du 
Theatre  Frangais.  A  "  jolly-looking  woman  "  (in 
whom  we  recognize  Madame  Bonneville)  scruti- 
nized "Yorke  severely,  but  was  smiling  enough 
on  learning  that  he  was  Paine's  old  friend.  He 
was  ushered  into  a  little  room  heaped  with  boxes 
of  documents,  a  chaos  of  pamphlets  and  journals. 
While  Yorke  was  meditating  on  the  contrast 
between  this  habitation  of  a  founder  of  two 
great  republics  and  the  mansions  of  their  rulers, 


l8o2]  THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE.  301 

his  old  friend  entered,  dressed  in  a  long  flannel 
gown. 

"  Time  seemed  to  have  made  dreadful  ravages  over  his  whole 
frame,  and  a  settled  melancholy  was  visible  on  his  countenance. 
He  desired  me  to  be  seated,  and  although  he  did  not  recollect 
me  for  aconsiderable  time,  he  conversed  with  his  usual  affability. 
I  confess  I  felt  extremely  surprised  that  he  should  have  forgot- 
ten me  ;  but  I  resolved  not  to  make  myself  known  to  him,  as 
long  as  it  could  be  avoided  with  propriety.  In  order  to  try  his 
memory,  I  referred  to  a  number  of  circumstances  which  had 
occurred  while  we  were  in  company,  but  carefully  abstained 
from  hinting  that  we  had  ever  lived  together.  He  would  fre- 
quently put  his  hand  to  his  forehead,  and  exclaim,  '  Ah  !  I 
know  that  voice,  but  my  recollection  fails  ! '  At  length  I 
thought  it  time  to  remove  his  suspense,  and  stated  an  incident 
which  instantly  recalled  me  to  his  mind.  It  is  impossible  to 
describe  the  sudden  change  which  this  effected  ;  his  coun- 
tenance brightened,  he  pressed  me  by  the  hand,  and  a  silent 
tear  stole  down  his  cheek.  Nor  was  I  less  affected  than  him- 
self. For  some  time  we  sat  without  a  word  escaping  from  our 
lips.  '  Thus  are  we  met  once  more,  Mr.  Paine,'  I  resumed, 
'after  a  long  separation  of  ten  years,  and  after  having  been 
both  of  us  severely  weather-beaten.'  'Aye,'  he  replied,  'and 
who  would  have  thought  that  we  should  meet  in  Paris  ? '  He 
then  enquired  what  motive  had  brought  me  here,  and  on  my 
explaining  myself,  he  observed  with  a  smile  of  contempt,  '  They 
have  shed  blood  enough  for  liberty,  and  now  they  have  it  in 
perfection.  This  is  not  a  country  for  an  honest  man  to  live 
in  ;  they  do  not  understand  any  thing  at  all  of  the  principles  of 
free  government,  and  the  best  way  is  to  leave  them  to  them- 
selves. You  see  they  have  conquered  all  Europe,  only  to  make 
it  more  miserable  than  it  was  before.'  Upon  this,  I  remarked 
that  I  was  surprised  to  hear  him  speak  in  such  desponding  lan- 
guage of  the  fortune  of  mankind,  and  that  I  thought  much 
might  yet  be  done  for  the  Republic.  '  Republic  !  '  he  ex- 
claimed, '  do  you  call  this  a  Republic  ?  Why  they  are  worse 
off  than  the  slaves  of  Constantinople  ;  for  there,  they  expect  to 
be  bashaws  in  heaven  by  submitting  to  be  slaves  below,  but 


302 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1802 


here  they  believe  neither  in  heaven  nor  hell,  and  yet  are 
slaves  by  choice.  I  know  of  no  Republic  in  the  world  except 
America,  which  is  the  only  country  for  such  men  as  you  and  I. 
It  is  my  intention  to  get  away  from  this  place  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, and  I  hope  to  be, off  in  the  autumn  ;  you  are  a  young  man 
and  may  see  better  times,  but  I  have  done  with  Europe,  and  its 
slavish  politics.' 

"  I  have  often  been  in  company  with  Mr.  Paine,  since  my 
arrival  here,  and  I  was  not  a  little  surprised  to  find  him  wholly 
indifferent  about  the  public  spirit  in  England,  or  the  remaining 
influence  of  his  doctrines  among  its  people.  Indeed  he  seemed 
to  dislike  the  mention  of  the  subject ;  and  when,  one  day,  in 
order  to  provoke  discussion,  I  told  him  I  had  altered  my 
opinions  upon  many  of  his  principles,  he  answered,  '  You  cer- 
tainly have  the  right  to  do  so  ;  but  you  cannot  alter  the  nature 
of  things  ;  the  French  have  alarmed  all  honest  men  ;  but  still 
truth  is  truth.  Though  you  may  not  think  that  my  principles 
are  practicable  in  England,  without  bringing  on  a  great  deal  of 
misery  and  confusion,  you  are,  I  am  sure,  convinced  of  their 
justice.'  Here  he  took  occasion  to  speak  in  terms  of  the  ut- 
most severity  of  Mr  ,  who  had  obtained  a  seat  in  parlia- 
ment, and  said  that  '  parsons  were  always  mischievous  fellows 
when  they  turned  politicians.'  This  gave  rise  to  an  observation 
respecting  his  *  Age  of  Reason,'  the  publication  of  which  I  said 
had  lost  him  the  good  opinion  of  numbers  of  his  English  advo- 
cates. He  became  uncommonly  warm  at  this  remark,  and  in  a 
tone  of  singular  energy  declared  that  he  would  not  have  pub- 
lished it  if  he  had  not  thought  it  calculated  to  '  inspire  man- 
kind with  a  more  exalted  idea  of  the  Supreme  Architect  of  the 
Universe,  and  to  put  an  end  to  villainous  imposture.'  He  then 
broke  out  with  the  most  violent  invectives  against  our  received 
opinions,  accompanying  them  at  the  same  time  with  some  of  the 
most  grand  and  sublime  conceptions  of  an  Omnipotent  Being, 
that  I  ever  heard  or  read  of.  In  the  support  of  his  opinion,  he 
avowed  himself  ready  to  lay  down  his  life,  and  said  '  the  Bishop 
of  Llandaff  may  roast  me  in  Smithfield  if  he  likes,  but  human 
torture  cannot  shake  my  conviction.'  He  reached  down  a  copy 
of  the  Bishop's  work,  interleaved  with  remarks  upon  it,  which 
he  read  me  ;  after  which  he  admitted  the  liberality  of  the 


i802]  THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE.  303 

Bishop,  and  regretted  that  in  all  controversies  among  men  a 
similar  temper  was  not  maintained.  But  in  proportion  as  he 
appeared  listless  in  ])olitics,  he  seemed  quite  a  zealot  in  his  re- 
ligious creed  ;  of  which  the  following  is  an  instance.  An  Eng- 
lish lady  of  our  acquaintance,  not  less  remarkable  for  her  talents 
than  for  elegance  of  manners,  entreated  me  to  contrive  that  she 
might  have  an  interview  with  Mr.  Paine.  In  consequence  of 
this  I  invited  him  to  dinner  on  a  day  when  we  were  to  be 
favoured  with  her  company.  But  as  she  is  a  very  rigid  Roman 
Catholic  I  cautioned  Mr.  Paine,  beforehand,  against  touching 
upon  religious  subjects,  assuring  him  at  the  same  time  that  she 
felt  much  interested  to  make  his  acquaintance.  With  much 
good  nature  he  promised  to  be  ^z'j^r^^/.  .  .  .  For  above  four  hours 
he  kept  every  one  in  astonishment  and  admiration  of  his  mem- 
ory, his  keen  observation  of  men  and  manners,  his  numberless 
anecdotes  of  the  American  Indians,  of  the  American  war,  of 
Franklin,  Washington,  and  even  of  his  Majesty,  of  whom  he 
told  several  curious  facts  of  humour  and  benevolence.  His 
remarks  on  genius  and  taste  can  never  be  forgotten  by  those 
present.  Thus  far  everything  went  on  as  I  could  wish  ;  the 
sparkling  champagne  gave  a  zest  to  his  conversation,  and  we 
were  all  delighted.  But  alas  !  alas  !  an  expression  relating  to 
his  '  Age  of  Reason  '  having  been  mentioned  by  one  of  the 
company,  he  broke  out  immediately.  He  began  with  Astron- 
omy,— addressing  himself  to  Mrs.  Y., — he  declared  that  the 
least  inspection  of  the  motion  of  the  stars  was  a  convincing 
proof  that  Moses  was  a  liar.  Nothing  could  stop  him.  In  vain 
I  attempted  to  change  the  subject,  by  employing  every  artifice 
in  my  power,  and  even  attacking  with  vehemence  his  political 
principles.  He  returned  to  the  charge  with  unabated  ardour. 
I  called  upon  him  for  a  song  though  I  never  heard  him  sing  in 
my  life.  He  struck  up  one  of  his  own  composition  ;  but  the 
instant  he  had  finished  it  he  resumed  his  favourite  topic.  I 
felt  extremely  mortified,  and  remarked  that  he  had  forgotten 
his  promise,  and  that  it  was  not  fair  to  wound  so  deeply  the 
opinions  of  the  ladies.  '  Oh  !  '  said  he,  '  they  '11  come  again. 
What  a  pity  it  is  that  people  should  be  so  prejudiced  ! '  To 
which  I  retorted  that  their  prejudices  might  be  virtues.  '  If  so,' 
he  replied,  '  the  blossoms  may  be  beautiful  to  the  eye,  but  the 


304  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i8o2 

root  is  weak.'  One  of  the  most  extraordinary  properties  be- 
longing to  Mr.  Paine  is  his  power  of  retaining  everything  he 
has  written  in  the  course  of  his  life.  It  is  a  fact  that  he  can 
repeat  word  for  word  every  sentence  in  his  '  Common  Sense,' 
*  Rights  of  Man,'  etc.,  etc.  The  Bible  is  the  only  book  which 
he  has  studied,  and  there  is  not  a  verse  in  it  that  is  not 
familiar  to  him.  In  shewing  me  one  day  the  beautiful  models 
of  two  bridges  he  had  devised  he  observed  that  Dr.  Franklin 
once  told  him  that  *  books  are  written  to  please,  houses  built 
for  great  men,  churches  for  priests,  but  no  bridges  for  the  peo- 
ple.' These  models  exhibit  an  extraordinary  degree  not  only 
of  skill  but  of  taste  ;  and  are  wrought  with  extreme  delicacy 
entirely  by  his  own  hands.  The  largest  is  nearly  four  feet  in 
length  ;  the  iron  works,  the  chains,  and  every  other  article  be- 
longing to  it,  were  forged  and  manufactured  by  himself.  It  is 
intended  as  the  model  of  a  bridge  which  is  to  be  constructed 
across  the  Delaware,  extending  480  feet  with  only  one  arch. 
The  other  is  to  be  erected  over  a  lesser  river,  whose  name  I 
forget,  and  is  likewise  a  single  arch,  and  of  his  own  workman- 
ship, excepting  the  chains,  which,  instead  of  iron,  are  cut  out 
of  pasteboard,  by  the  fair  hand  of  his  correspondent  the 
'Little  Corner  of  the  World,'  whose  indefatigable  perseverance 
is  extraordinary.  He  was  offered  ^3000  for  these  models  and 
refused  it.  The  iron  bars,  which  I  before  mentioned  that  I 
noticed  in  a  corner  of  his  room,  were  also  forged  by  himself,  as 
the  model  of  a  crane,  of  a  new  description.  He  put  them  to- 
gether, and  exhibited  the  power  of  the  lever  to  a  most  surprising 
degree."  ' 

About  this  time  Sir  Robert  Smith  died,  and  an- 
other of  the  ties  to  Paris  was  snapped.  His  beloved 
Bonnevilles  promised  to  follow  him  to  the  New 
World.  His  old  friend  Rickman  has  come  over  to 
see  him  off,  and  observed  that  "  he  did  not  drink 
spirits,  and  wine  he  took  moderately  ;  he  even  ob- 
jected to  any  spirits  being  laid  in  as  a  part  of  his 

'  "  Letters  from  France,"  etc.,  London,  1804,  2  vols.,  8vo.  Thirty-three 
pages  of  the  last  letter  are  devoted  to  Paine. 


i8o2]  THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE.  305 

sea-Stock."  These  two  friends  journeyed  together 
to  Havre,  where,  on  September  ist,  the  way-worn 
man  begins  his  homeward  voyage.  Poor  Rickman, 
the  perpetually  prosecuted,  strains  his  eyes  till  the 
sail  is  lost,  then  sits  on  the  beach  and  writes  his 
poetical  tribute  to  Jefferson  and  America  for  re- 
calling Paine,  and  a  touching  farewell  to  his 
friend  : 

"  Thus  smooth  be  thy  waves,  and  thus  gentle  the  breeze, 

As  thou  bearest  my  Paine  far  away  ; 
O  waft  him  to  comfort  and  regions  of  ease, 
Each  blessing  of  freedom  and  friendship  to  seize. 

And  bright  be  his  setting  sun's  ray." 

Who  can  imagine  the  joy  of  those  eyes  when 
they  once  more  beheld  the  distant  coast  of  the 
New  World  !  Fifteen  years  have  passed, — years 
in  which  all  nightmares  became  real,  and  liberty's 
sun  had  turned  to  blood, — since  he  saw  the  happy 
land  fading  behind  him.  Oh,  America,  thine  old 
friend  who  first  claimed  thy  republican  independ- 
ence, who  laid  aside  his  Quaker  coat  and  fought  for 
thy  cause,  believing  it  sacred,  is  returning  to  thy 
breast !  This  is  the  man  of  whom  Washington 
wrote :  "His  writings  certainly  had  a  powerful 
effect  on  the  public  mind, — ought  they  not  then 
to  meet  an  adequate  return  ?  He  is  poor  !  He  is 
chagrined  !  "  It  is  not  money  he  needs  now,  but 
tenderness,  sympathy  ;  for  he  comes  back  from  an 
old  world  that  has  plundered,  outlawed,  imprisoned 
him  for  his  love  of  mankind.  He  has  seen  his 
dear  friends  sent  to  the  guillotine,  and  others  are 
pining  in  British  prisons  for  publishing  his  "  Rights 
of   Man," — principles   pronounced   by  President 

VOL.  II.  20 


3o6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i8o2 


Jefferson  and  Secretary  Madison  to  be  those  of  the 
United  States.  Heartsore,  scarred,  white-haired, 
there  remains  to  this  veteran  of  many  struggles  for 
humanity  but  one  hope,  a  kindly  welcome,  a  peace- 
ful haven  for  his  tempest-tossed  life.  Never  for  an 
instant  has  his  faith  in  the  heart  of  America  been 
shaken.  Already  he  sees  his  friend  Jefferson's 
arms  extended  ;  he  sees  his  old  comrades  welcom- 
ing him  to  their  hearths  ;  he  sees  his  own  house 
and  sward  at  Bordentown,  and  the  beautiful  Kirk- 
bride  mansion  beside  the  Delaware, — river  of 
sacred  memories,  soon  to  be  spanned  by  his  grace- 
ful arch.  How  the  ladies  he  left  girls, — Fanny, 
Kitty,  Sally, — will  come  with  their  husbands  to 
greet  him  !  How  will  they  admire  the  latest 
bridge-model,  with  Lady  Smith's  delicate  chain- 
work  for  which  (such  is  his  estimate  of  friendship) 
he  refused  three  thousand  pounds,  though  it  would 
have  made  his  mean  room  palatial  !  Ah,  yes,  poor 
heart,  America  will  soothe  your  wounds,  and  pillow 
your  sinking  head  on  her  breast !  America,  with 
Jefferson  in  power,  is  herself  again.  They  do  not 
hate  men  in  America  for  not  believing  in  a  celes- 
tial Robespierre.  Thou  stricken  friend  of  man, 
who  hast  appealed  from  the  god  of  wrath  to  the 
God  of  Humanity,  see  in  the  distance  that  Mary- 
land coast,  which  early  voyagers  called  Avalon, 
and  sing  again  your  song  when  first  stepping  oa 
that  shore  twenty-seven  years  ago  : 

"  I  come  to  sing  that  summer  is  at  hand, 
The  summer  time  of  wit,  you  '11  understand  ; 
Plants,  fruits,  and  flowers,  and  all  the  smiling  race 
That  can  the  orchard  or  the  garden  grace  ; 


i802]  THE  LAST  YEAR  IN  EUROPE.  307 

The  Rose  and  Lily  shall  address  the  fair, 

And  whisper  sweetly  out, '  My  dears,  take  care  :  ' 

With  sterling  worth  the  Plant  of  Sense  shall  rise, 

And  teach  the  curious  to  philosophize  ! ' 

The  frost  returns  ?    We  '11  garnish  out  the  scenes 

With  stately  rows  of  Evergreens, 

Trees  that  will  bear  the  frost,  and  deck  their  tops 

With  everlasting  flowers,  like  diamond  drops."  ' 

'  "  The  Snowdrop  and  Critic,"  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  1775.  Couplets 
are  omitted  between  those  given. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION. 

On  October  30th  Paine  landed  at  Baltimore. 
More  than  two  and  a  half  centuries  had  elapsed 
since  the  Catholic  Lord  Baltimore  appointed  a 
Protestant  Governor  of  Maryland,  William  Stone, 
who  proclaimed  in  that  province  (1648)  religious 
freedom  and  equality.  The  Puritans,  crowding 
thither,  from  regions  of  oppression,  grew  strong 
enough  to  exterminate  the  religion  of  Lord  Balti- 
more who  had  given  them  shelter,  and  imprisoned 
his  Protestant  Governor.  So,  in  the  New  World, 
passed  the  Inquisition  from  Catholic  to  Protestant 
hands. 

In  Paine's  first  American  pamphlet,  he  had  re- 
peated and  extolled  the  principle  of  that  earliest 
proclamation  of  religious  liberty.  "  Diversity  of 
religious  opinions  affords  a  larger  field  for  Christian 
kindness."  The  Christian  kindness  now  consists  in 
a  cessation  of  sectarian  strife  that  they  may  unite 
in  stretching  the  author  of  the  "Age  of  Reason" 
on  their  common  rack,  so  far  as  was  possible  under 
a  Constitution  acknowledging  no  deity.  This  per- 
secution began  on  the  victim's  arrival. 

Soon  after  landing  Paine  wrote  to  President  Jef- 
ferson :    "  I  arrived  here  on  Saturday  from  Havre, 

308 


l8o2]  THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION.  309 

after  a  passage  of  sixty  days.  I  have  several  cases 
of  models,  wheels,  etc.,  and  as  soon  as  I  can  get 
them  from  the  vessel  and  put  them  on  board  the 
packet  for  Georgetown  I  shall  set  off  to  pay  my 
respects  to  you.  Your  much  obliged  fellow-citizen, 
— Thomas  Paine." 

On  reaching  Washington  City  Paine  found  his 
dear  friend  Monroe  starting  off  to  resume  his  min- 
istry in  Paris,  and  by  him  wrote  to  Mr.  Este, 
banker  in  Paris  (Sir  Robert  Smith's  son-in-law), 
enclosing  a  letter  to  Rickman,  in  London.  "  You 
can  have  no  idea,"  he  tells  Rickman,  "  of  the  agita- 
tion which  my  arrival  occasioned."  Every  paper  is 
"filled  with  applause  or  abuse." 

"  My  property  in  this  country  has  been  taken  care  of  by  my 
friends,  and  is  now  worth  six  thousand  pounds  sterling  ;  which 
put  in  the  funds  will  bring  me  j[,i,oo  sterling  a  year.  Remem- 
ber me  in  friendship  and  affection  to  your  wife  and  family,  and 
in  the  circle  of  our  friends.  I  am  but  just  arrived  here,  and  the 
minister  sails  in  a  few  hours,  so  that  I  have  just  time  to  write 
you  this.  If  he  should  not  sail  this  tide  I  will  write  to  my  good 
friend  Col.  Bosville,  but  in  any  case  I  request  you  to  wait  on 
him  for  me.'    Yours  in  friendship." 

'  Paine  still  had  faith  in  Bosville.  He  was  slow  in  suspecting  any  man. 
who  seemed  enthusiastic  for  liberty.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  it  is  painful  to  find  in  the  "  Diary  and  Letters  of  Gouverneur  Morris," 
(ii.,  p.  426)  a  confidential  letter  to  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Minister  in  France, 
which  seems  to  assume  that  Minister's  readiness  to  receive  slanders  of  Jeffer- 
son, who  appointed  him,  and  of  Paine  whose  friendship  he  seemed  to  value. 
Speaking  of  the  President,  Morris  says  :  ' '  The  employment  of  and  confidence 
in  adventurers  from  abroad  will  sooner  or  later  rouse  the  pride  and  indigna- 
tion of  this  country."  Morris'  editor  adds  :  "  This  was  probably  an  allusion 
to  Thomas  Paine,  who  had  recently  returned  to  America  and  was  supposed 
to  be  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  who,  it  was  said,  received  him 
warmly,  dined  him  at  the  White  House,  and  could  be  seen  walking  arm  in 
arm  with  him  on  the  street  any  fine  afternoon."  The  allusion  to  "  adven- 
turers "  was  no  doubt  meant  for  Paine,  but  not  to  his  reception  by  Jeffersuu, 
for  Morris'  letter  was  written  on  August  27th,  some  two  months  before 


3IO  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1802 

The  defeated  Federalists  had  already  prepared 
their  batteries  to  assail  the  President  for  inviting 
Paine  to  return  on  a  national  ship,  under  escort  of 
a  Congressman.  It  required  some  skill  for  these 
adherents  of  John  Adams,  a  Unitarian,  to  set  the 
Inquisition  in  motion.  It  had  to  be  done,  however, 
as  there  was  no  chance  of  breaking  down  JefYerson 
but  by  getting  preachers  to  sink  political  differences 
and  hound  the  President's  favorite  author.  Out  of 
the  North,  stronghold  of  the  "  British  Party,"  came 
this  partisan  crusade  under  a  pious  flag.  In  Vir- 
ginia and  the  South  the  "  Age  of  Reason "  was 
fairly  discussed,  its  influence  being  so  great  that 
Patrick  Henry,  as  we  have  seen,  wrote  and  burnt  a 
reply.  In  Virginia,  Deism,  though  largely  prevail- 
ing, had  not  prevented  its  adherents  from  support- 
ing the  Church  as  an  institution.  It  had  become 
their  habit  to  talk  of  such  matters  only  in  private. 
Jefferson  had  not  ventured  to  express  his  views  in 
public,  and  was  troubled  at  finding  himself  mixed 
up  with  the  heresies  of  Paine.'    The  author  on 

Paine's  arrival.  It  was  probably  meant  by  Morris  to  damage  Paine  in  Paris, 
where  it  was  known  that  he  was  intimate  with  Livingston,  who  had  been  in- 
troduced by  him  to  influential  men,  among  others  to  Sir  Robert  Smith  and 
Este,  bankers.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Livingston  resented  Morris'  assump- 
tion of  his  treacherous  character.  Morris,  who  had  shortly  before  dined  at 
the  White  House,  tells  Livingston  that  Jefferson  "  is  descending  to  a  condi- 
tion which  I  find  no  decent  word  to  designate."  Surely  Livingston's  de- 
scendants should  discover  his  reply  to  that  letter. 

'  To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Waterhouse  (Unitarian)  who  had  asked  permission  to 
publish  a  letter  of  his,  Jefferson,  with  a  keen  remembrance  of  Paine's  fate, 
wrote  (July  19,  1822):  "No,  my  dear  Sir,  not  for  the  world.  Into  what 
a  hornet's  nest  would  it  thrust  my  head  ! — The  gejtus  ii-ritabile  vatum,  on 
whom  argument  is  lost,  and  reason  is  by  themselves  disdained  in  matters  of 
religion.  Don  Quixote  undertook  to  redress  the  bodily  wrongs  of  the  world, 
but  the  redressment  of  mental  vagaries  would  be  an  enterprise  more  than 
Quixotic.    I  should  as  soon  undertake  to  bring  the  crazy  skulls  of  Bedlam  to 


l8o2]  THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION.  3 11 

reaching  Lovell's  Hotel,  Washington,  had  made 
known  his  arrival  to  the  President,  and  was  cor- 
dially received  ;  but  as  the  newspapers  came  in 
with  their  abuse,  Jefferson  may  have  been  some- 
what intimidated.  At  any  rate  Paine  so  thought. 
Eager  to  disembarrass  the  administration,  Paine 
published  a  letter  in  the  National  Intelligencer, 
which  had  cordially  welcomed  him,  in  which  he 
said  that  he  should  not  ask  or  accept  any  office.' 
He  meant  to  continue  writing  and  bring  forward 
his  mechanical  projects.  None  the  less  did  the 
"  federalist  "  press  use  Paine's  infidelity  to  belabor 
the  President,  and  the  author  had  to  write  defen- 
sive letters  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival.  On 
October  29th,  before  Paine  had  landed,  the 
National  Intelligencer  had  printed  (from  a  Lancas- 
ter, Pa.,  journal)  a  vigorous  letter,  signed  "A  Re- 
publican," showing  that  the  denunciations  of  Paine 
were  not  religious,  but  political,  as  John  Adams 
was  also  unorthodox.  The  "  federalists  "  must  often 
have  wished  that  they  had  taken  this  warning, 

sound  understanding  as  to  inculcate  reason  into  that  of  an  Athanasian.  I 
am  old,  and  tranquillity  is  now  my  siiinimim  bonuin.  Keep  me  therefore 
from  the  fire  and  faggot  of  Calvin  and  his  victim  Servetus.  Happy  in  the 
prospect  of  a  restoration  of  a  primitive  Christianity,  I  must  leave  to  younger 
athletes  to  lop  off  the  false  branches  which  have  been  engrafted  into  it  by 
the  mythologists  of  the  middle  and  modern  ages." — MS.  belonging  to  Dr. 
Fogg  of  Boston. 

'  The  National  Intelligencer  (Nov.  3d),  announcing  Paine's  arrival  at  Balti- 
more, said,  among  other  things  :  "Be  his  religious  sentiments  what  they 
may,  it  must  be  their  [the  American  people's]  wish  that  he  may  live  in  the 
undisturbed  possession  of  our  common  blessings,  and  enjoy  them  the  more 
from  his  active  participation  in  their  attainment."  The  same  paper  said, 
Nov.  loth  :  "  Thomas  Paine  has  arrived  in  this  city  [Washington]  and  has 
received  a  cordial  reception  from  the  Whigs  of  Seventy-six,  and  the  repub- 
licans of  1800,  who  have  the  independence  to  feel  and  avow  a  sentiment  of 
gratitude  for  his  eminent  revolutionary  services." 


312  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [i8o? 

for  Paine's  pen  was  keener  than  ever,  and  the 
opposition  had  no  writer  to  meet  him.  His  eight 
"Letters  to  the  Citizens  of  the  United  States" 
were  scathing,  eloquent,  untrammelled  by  partisan- 
ship, and  made  a  profound  impression  on  the  coun- 
try,— for  even  the  opposition  press  had  to  publish 
them  as  part  of  the  news  of  the  day.' 

On  Christmas  Day  Paine  wrote  the  President  a 
suggestion  for  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  The 
French,  to  whom  Louisiana  had  been  ceded  by 
Spain,  closed  New  Orleans  (November  26th) 
against  foreign  ships  (including  American),  and 
prohibited  deposits  there  by  way  of  the  Mississippi. 
This  caused  much  excitement,  and  the  "  federal- 
ists "  showed  eagerness  to  push  the  administration 
into  a  belligerent  attitude  toward  France.  Paine's 
"  common  sense  "  again  came  to  the  front,  and  he 
sent  Jefferson  the  following  paper  : 

"  OF  LOUISIANA. 

"  Spain  has  ceded  Louisiana  to  france,  and  france  has 
excluded  the  Americans  from  N.  Orleans  and  the  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi ;  the  people  of  the  Western  Territory  have 
complained  of  it  to  their  Government,  and  the  governt.  is  of 
consequence  involved  and  interested  in  the  affair  The  ques- 
tion then  is — What  is  the  best  step  to  be  taken  ? 

"  The  one  is  to  begin  by  memorial  and  remonstrance  against 
an  infraction  of  a  right.  The  other  is  by  accommodation, 
still  keeping  the  right  in  view,  but  not  making  it  a  ground- 
work. 

"  Suppose  then  the  Government  begin  by  making  a  proposal 
to  france  to  repurchase  the  cession,  made  to  her  by  Spain,  of 

'  They  were  published  in  \h&  National  Intelligencer  o{  November  15th,  22d, 
2gth,  December  6th,  January  25th,  and  February  2d,  1803.  Of  the  others 
one  appeared  in  the  Aurora  (Philadelphia),  dated  from  Bordentown,  N.  J., 
March  12th,  and  the  last  in  the  Trenton  True  American,  dated  April  21st. 


i8o2]  THE  AMERICAN  INQUTSTTTON.  313 

Louisiana,  jirovided  it  be  with  the  consent  of  the  people  of 
Louisiana  or  a  majority  thereof. 

"  By  beginning  on  this  ground  any  thing  can  be  said 
without  carrying  the  appearance  of  a  threat, — the  growing 
power  of  the  western  territory  can  be  stated  as  matter  of  in- 
formation, and  also  the  impossibility  of  restraining  them  from 
seizing  upon  New  Orleans,  and  the  equal  impossibility  of 
france  to  prevent  it. 

"  Suppose  the  proposal  attended  to,  the  sum  to  be  given 
comes  next  on  the  carpet.  This,  on  the  part  of  America,  will 
be  estimated  between  the  value  of  the  Commerce,  and  the 
quantity  of  revenue  that  Louisiana  will  produce. 

"  The  french  treasury  is  not  only  empty,  but  the  Govern- 
ment has  consumed  by  anticipation  a  great  part  of  the  next 
year's  revenue.  A  monied  proposal  will,  I  believe,  be  attended 
to  ;  if  it  should,  the  claims  upon  france  can  be  stipulated  as 
part  of  the  payment,  and  that  sum  can  be  paid  here  to  the 
claimants. 

"  1  congratulate  you  on  the  birthday  of  the  New  Sun, 

now  called  christmas-day  ;  and  I  make  you  a  present  of  a 
thought  on  Louisiana. 

"  T  P  " 

Jefferson  next  day  told  Paine,  what  was  as  yet  a 
profound  secret,  that  he  was  already  contemplating 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana.^ 

'  "  The  idea  occurred  to  me,"  Paine  afterwards  wrote  to  the  President, 
"  without  knowing  it  had  occurred  to  any  other  person,  and  I  mentioned  it 
to  Dr.  Leib  who  lived  in  the  same  house  (Lovell's) ;  and,  as  he  appeared 
pleased  with  it,  I  wrote  the  note  and  showed  it  to  him  before  I  sent  it. 
The  next  morning  you  said  to  me  that  measures  were  already  taken  in  that 
business.  When  Leib  returned  from  Congress  I  told  him  of  it.  '  I  knew 
that,'  said  he.  '  Why  then,'  said  I,  '  did  you  not  tell  me  so,  because  in 
that  case  I  would  not  have  sent  the  note.'  '  That  is  the  very  reason,'  said 
he  ;  '  I  would  not  tell  you,  because  two  opinions  concurring  on  a  case 
strengthen  it.'  I  do  not,  however,  like  Dr.  Leib's  motion  about  Banks. 
Congress  ought  to  be  very  cautious  how  it  gives  encouragement  to  this 
speculating  project  of  banking,  for  it  is  now  carried  to  an  extreme.  It  is 
but  another  kind  of  striking  paper  money.  Neither  do  I  like  the  notion 
respecting  the  recession  of  the  territory  [District  of  Columbia.]."  Dr. 
Michael  Leib  was  a  representative  from  Pennsylvania. 


314  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1803 

The  "  New  Sun  "  was  destined  to  bring  his  sun- 
strokes on  Paine.  The  pathetic  story  of  his  wrongs 
in  England,  his  martyrdom  in  France,  was  not 
generally  known,  and,  in  reply  to  attacks,  he  had 
to  tell  it  himself.  He  had  returned  for  repose  and 
found  himself  a  sort  of  battlefield.  One  of  the 
most  humiliating  circumstances  was  the  discovery 
that  in  this  conflict  of  parties  the  merits  of  his  re- 
ligion were  of  least  consideration.  The  outcry  of 
the  country  against  him,  so  far  as  it  was  not  merely 
political,  was  the  mere  ignorant  echo  of  pulpit 
vituperation.  His  well-considered  theism,  fruit  of 
so  much  thought,  nursed  amid  glooms  of  the 
dungeon,  was  called  infidelity  or  atheism.  Even 
some  from  whom  he  might  have  expected  discrim- 
inating criticism  accepted  the  vulgar  version  and 
wrote  him  in  deprecation  of  a  work  they  had  not 
read.  Samuel  Adams,  his  old  friend,  caught  in 
this  schwdrmerei,  wrote  him  from  Boston  (Novem- 
ber 30th)  that  he  had  "  heard  "  that  he  had  "  turned 
his  mind  to  a  defence  of  infidelity."  Paine  copied 
for  him  his  creed  from  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  and 
asked,  "  My  good  friend,  do  you  call  believing  in 
God  infidelity  ?  " 

This  letter  to  Samuel  Adams  (January  i,  1803) 
has  indications  that  Paine  had  developed  farther 
his  theistic  ideal. 

"We  cannot  serve  the  Deity  in  the  manner  we  serve  those 
who  cannot  do  without  that  service.  He  needs  no  service  from 
us.  We  can  add  nothing  to  eternity.  But  it  is  in  our  power  to 
render  a  service  acceptable  to  him,  and  that  is,  not  by  praying, 
Dutby  endeavoring  to  make  his  creatures  happy.  A  man  does 
not  serve  God  by  praying,  for  it  is  himself  he  is  trying  to  serve  ; 


1803] 


THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITIO!^. 


and  n,s  to  hiring  or  i)aying  men  to  pray,  as  if  the  Deity  needed 
instruction,  it  is  in  my  opinion  an  abomination.  I  have  been 
exposed  to  and  preserved  through  many  dangers,  but  instead 
of  buffeting  the  Deity  with  prayers,  as  if  I  distrusted  him,  or 
must  dictate  to  him,  I  reposed  myself  on  his  protection  ;  and 
you,  my  friend,  will  find,  even  in  your  last  moments,  more  con- 
solation in  the  silence  of  resignation  than  in  the  murmuring 
wish  of  a  prayer." 

Paine  must  have  been  especially  hurt  by  a  sen- 
tence in  the  letter  of  Samuel  Adams  in  which  he 
said  :  "  Our  friend,  the  president  of  the  United 
States,  has  been  calumniated  for  his  liberal  senti- 
ments, by  men  who  have  attributed  that  liberality 
to  a  latent  design  to  promote  the  cause  of  infidel- 
ity." To  this  he  did  not  reply,  but  it  probably  led 
him  to  feel  a  deeper  disappointment  at  the  post- 
ponement of  the  interviews  he  had  hoped  to  enjoy 
with  Jefferson  after  thirteen  years  of  separation.  A 
feeling  of  this  kind  no  doubt  prompted  the  follow- 
ing note  (January  12th)  sent  to  the  President  : 

"  I  will  be  obliged  to  you  to  send  back  the  Models,  as  I  am 
packing  up  to  set  off  for  Philadelphia  and  New  York.  My 
intention  in  bringing  them  here  in  preference  to  sending  them 
from  Baltimore  to  Philadelphia,  was  to  have  some  conversation 
with  you  on  those  matters  and  others  I  have  not  informed  you 
of.  But  you  have  not  only  shown  no  disposition  towards  it, 
but  have,  in  some  measure,  by  a  sort  of  shyness,  as  if  you  stood 
in  fear  of  federal  observation,  precluded  it.  I  am  not  the  only 
one,  who  makes  observations  of  this  kind." 

J  eff  erson  at  once  took  care  that  there  should  be  no 
misunderstanding  as  to  his  regard  for  Paine.  The 
author  was  for  some  days  a  guest  in  the  President's 
family,  where  he  again  met  Maria  Jefferson  (Mrs. 
Eppes)  whom  he  had  known  in  Paris.  Randall 


3i6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


says  the  devout  ladies  of  the  family  had  been  shy 
of  Paine,  as  was  but  natural,  on  account  of  the 
President's  reputation  for  rationalism,  but  "  Paine's 
discourse  was  weighty,  his  manners  sober  and  in- 
offensive ;  and  he  left  Mr.  Jefferson's  mansion  the 
subject  of  lighter  prejudices  than  he  entered  it."' 

Paine's  defamers  have  manifested  an  eagerness 
to  ascribe  his  maltreatment  to  personal  faults. 
This  is  not  the  case.  For  some  years  after  his 
arrival  in  the  country  no  one  ventured  to  hint 
anything  disparaging  to  his  personal  habits  or 
sobriety.  On  January  i,  1803,  he  wrote  to  Samuel 
Adams  :  "  I  have  a  good  state  of  health  and  a 
happy  mind  ;  I  take  care  of  both  by  nourishing  the 
first  with  temperance,  and  the  latter  with  abun- 
dance." Had  not  this  been  true  the  "  federal  "  press 
would  have  noised  it  abroad.  He  was  neat  in  his 
attire.  In  all  portraits,  French  and  American,  his 
dress  is  in  accordance  with  the  fashion.  There 
was  not,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  a  suggestion 
while  he  was  at  Washington,  that  he  was  not  a 
suitable  guest  for  any  drawing-room  in  the  capital. 
On  February  23,  1803,  probably,  was  written  the 
following  which  I  find  among  the  Cobbett  papers  : 

From  Mr.  Paine  to  Mr.  'y^efferson,  oji  the  occasion  of  a  toast 
being  given  at  a  federal  dinner  at  Washington,  of  "May  they 

NEVER  KNOW   PLEASURE  WHO   LOVE  PaINE." 

"  I  send  you,  Sir,  a  tale  about  some  Feds, 
Who,  in  their  wisdom,  got  to  loggerheads. 

'  "  Lifeof  Jefferson,"  ii.,  642  j^ijf.  Randall  is  mistaken  in  some  statements. 
Paine,  as  we  have  seen,  did  not  return  on  the  ship  placed  at  his  service  by 
the  President ;  nor  did  the  President's  letter  appear  until  long  after  his 
return,  when  he  and  Jefferson  felt  it  necessary  in  order  to  disabuse  the 
public  mind  of  the  most  absurd  rumors  on  the  subject. 


1803]  THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION.  317 


The  case  was  this,  they  felt  so  flat  and  sunk, 

They  took  a  glass  together  and  got  drunk. 

Such  things,  you  know,  are  neither  new  nor  rare, 

For  some  will  hary  themselves  when  in  despair. 

It  was  the  natal  day  of  Washington, 

And  that  they  thought  a  famous  day  for  fun  ; 

For  with  the  learned  world  it  is  agreed, 

The  better  day  the  better  deed. 

They  talked  away,  and  as  the  glass  went  round 

They  grew,  in  point  of  wisdom,  more  profound ; 

For  at  the  bottom  of  the  bottle  lies 

That  kind  of  sense  we  overlook  when  wise. 

Come,  here 's  a  toast,  cried  one,  with  roar  immense, 

May  none  know  pleasure  who  love  Common  Sense. 

Bravo  !  cried  some, — no,  no  !  some  others  cried, 

But  left  it  to  the  waiter  to  decide. 

I  think,  said  he,  the  case  would  be  more  plain. 

To  leave  out  Common  Sense,  and  put  in  Paine. 

On  this  a  mighty  noise  arose  among 

This  drunken,  bawling,  senseless  throng. 

Some  said  that  Common  Sense  was  all  a  curse. 

That  making  people  wiser  made  them  worse ; 

It  learned  them  to  be  careful  of  their  purse. 

And  not  be  laid  about  like  babes  at  nurse, 

Nor  yet  believe  in  stories  upon  trust, 

Which  all  mankind,  to  be  well  governed  must ; 

And  that  the  toast  was  better  at  the  first, 

And  he  that  did  n't  think  so  might  be  cursed. 

So  on  they  went,  till  such  a  fray  arose 

As  all  who  know  what  Feds  are  may  suppose." 

On  his  way  northward,  to  his  old  home  in  Bor- 
dentown,  Paine  passed  many  a  remembered  spot, 
but  found  Httle  or  no  greeting  on  his  journey. 
In  Baltimore  a  "  New  Jerusalemite,"  as  the  Sweden- 
borgian  was  then  called,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hargrove, 
accosted  him  with  the  information  that  the  key  to 
scripture  was  found,  after  being  lost  4,000  years. 


3i8 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1803 


"  Then  it  must  be  very  rusty,"  answered  Paine. 
In  Philadelphia  his  old  friend  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush 
never  came  near  him.  "  His  principles,"  wrote 
Rush  to  Cheetham,  "  avowed  in  his  '  Age  of  Rea- 
son,' were  so  offensive  to  me  that  I  did  not  wish 
to  renew  my  intercourse  with  him."  Paine  made 
arrangements  for  the  reception  of  his  bridge 
models  at  Peale's  Museum,  but  if  he  met  any 
old  friend  there  no  mention  of  it  appears.  Most 
of  those  who  had  made  up  the  old  circle — Franklin, 
Rittenhouse,  Muhlenberg — were  dead,  some  were 
away  in  Congress  ;  but  no  doubt  Paine  saw  George 
Clymer.  However,  he  did  not  stay  long  in  Phila- 
delphia, for  he  was  eager  to  reach  the  spot  he  always 
regarded  as  his  home,  Bordentown.  And  there, 
indeed,  his  hope,  for  a  time,  seemed  to  be  fulfilled. 
It  need  hardly  be  said  that  his  old  friend  Colonel 
Kirkbride  gave  him  hearty  welcome.  John  Hall, 
Paine's  bridge  mechanician,  "  never  saw  him 
jollier,"  and  he  was  full  of  mechanical  "whims  and 
schemes  "  they  were  to  pursue  together.  Jeffer- 
son was  candidate  for  the  presidency,  and  Paine 
entered  heartily  into  the  canvass ;  which  was  not 
prudent,  but  he  knew  nothing  of  prudence.  The 
issue  not  only  concerned  an  old  friend,  but  was 
turning  on  the  question  of  peace  with  France.  On 
March  12th  he  writes  against  the  "federalist" 
scheme  for  violently  seizing  New  Orleans.  At  a 
meeting  in  April,  over  which  Colonel  Kirkbride  pre- 
sides, Paine  drafts  a  reply  to  an  attack  on  Jeffer- 
son's administration,  circulated  in  New  York.  On 
April  2 1  St  he  writes  the  refutation  of  an  attack  on 
Jefferson,  hpropos  of  the  national  vessel  offered  for 


1803]  THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION.  319 

his  return,  which  had  been  coupled  with  a  charge 
that  Paine  had  proposed  to  the  Directory  an  in- 
vasion of  America!  In  June  he  writes  about  his 
bridge  models  (then  at  Peale's  Museum,  Phila- 
delphia), and  his  hope  to  span  the  Delaware  and 
the  Schuylkill  with  iron  arches. 

Here  is  a  letter  written  to  Jefferson  from  Borden- 
town  (August  2d)  containing  suggestions  concern- 
ing the  beginning  of  government  in  Louisiana, 
from  which  it  would  appear  that  Paine's  faith  in 
the  natural  inspiration  of  vox  populi  was  still 
imperfect  : 

"  I  take  it  for  granted  that  the  present  inhabitants  know  little 
or  nothing  of  election  and  representation  as  constituting  gov- 
ernment. They  are  therefore  not  in  an  immediate  condition  to 
exercise  those  powers,  and  besides  this  they  are  perhaps  too 
much  under  the  influence  of  their  priests  to  be  sufficiently  free. 

"  I  should  suppose  that  a  Government  provisoire  formed  by 
Congress  for  three,  five,  or  seven  years  would  be  the  best  mode 
of  beginning.  In  the  meantime  they  may  be  initiated  into  the 
practice  by  electing  their  Municipal  government,  and  after 
some  experience  they  will  be  in  train  to  elect  their  State  gov- 
ernment. I  think  it  would  not  only  be  good  policy  but  right  to 
say,  that  the  people  shall  have  the  right  of  electing  their  Church 
Ministers,  otherwise  their  Ministers  will  hold  by  authority  from 
the  Pope.  I  do  not  make  it  a  compulsive  article,  but  to  put  it 
in  their  power  to  use  it  when  they  please.  It  will  serve  to  hold 
the  priests  in  a  stile  of  good  behavior,  and  also  to  give  the  peo- 
ple an  idea  of  elective  rights.  Anything,  they  say,  will  do 
to  learn  upon,  and  therefore  they  may  as  well  begin  upon 
priests. 

"  The  present  prevailing  language  is  french  and  Spanish,  but 
it  will  be  necessary  to  establish  schools  to  teach  english  as  the 
laws  ought  to  be  in  the  language  of  the  Union. 

"  As  soon  as  you  have  formed  any  plan  for  settling  the  Lands 
I  shall  be  glad  to  know  it.    My  motive  for  this  is  because  there 


320 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


are  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  in  England  and  Ireland 
and  also  in  Scotland  who  are  friends  of  mine  by  principle,  and 
who  would  gladly  change  their  present  country  and  condition. 
Many  among  them,  for  I  have  friends  in  all  ranks  of  life  in 
those  countries,  are  capable  of  becoming  monied  purchasers  to 
any  amount. 

"  If  you  can  give  me  any  hints  respecting  Louisiana,  the 
quantity  in  square  miles,  the  population,  and  amount  of  the 
present  Revenue  I  will  find  an  opportunity  of  making  some  use 
of  it.  When  the  formalities  of  the  cession  are  compleated,  the 
next  thing  will  be  to  take  possession,  and  I  think  it  would  be 
very  consistent  for  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  do 
this  in  person. 

"  What  is  Dayton  gone  to  New  Orleans  for  ?  Is  he  there 
as  an  Agent  for  the  British  as  Blount  was  said  to  be  ?  " 

Of  the  same  date  is  a  letter  to  Senator  Breck- 
enridge,  of  Kentucky,  forwarded  through  Jefferson  : 

"  My  Dear  Friend, — Not  knowing  your  place  of  Residence 
in  Kentucky  I  send  this  under  cover  to  the  President  desiring 
him  to  fill  up  the  direction. 

"  I  see  by  the  pubHc  papers  and  the  Proclamation  for  calling 
Congress,  that  the  cession  of  Louisiana  has  been  obtained. 
The  papers  state  the  purchase  to  be  11,250,000  dollars  in  the  six 
per  cents  and  3,750,000  dollars  to  be  paid  to  American  claim- 
ants who  have  furnished  supplies  to  France  and  the  french 
Colonies  and  are  yet  unpaid,  making  on  the  whole  15,000,000 
dollars. 

"  I  observe  that  the  faction  of  the  Feds  who  last  Winter  were 
for  going  to  war  to  obtain  possession  of  that  country  and  who 
attached  so  much  importance  to  it  that  no  expense  or  risk 
ought  be  spared  to  obtain  it,  have  now  altered  their  tone  and 
say  it  is  not  worth  having,  and  that  we  are  better  without  it  than 
with  it.  Thus  much  for  their  consistency.  What  follows  is  for 
your  private  consideration. 

"  The  second  section  of  the  2d  article  of  the  constitution 
says.  The  '  President  shall  have  Power  by  and  with  the  consent 
of  the  senate  to  make  Treaties  provided  two  thirds  of  the 
senators  present  concur.' 


1803]  THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION.  32 1 


"  A  question  may  be  supposed  to  arise  on  the  present  case, 
which  is,  under  what  character  is  the  cession  to  be  considered 
and  taken  up  in  congress,  whether  as  a  treaty,  or  in  some  other 
shape  ?    I  go  to  examine  this  point. 

"  Though  the  word,  Treaty,  as  a  Word,  is  unlimited  in  its 
meaning  and  application,  it  must  be  supposed  to  have  a  defined 
meaning  in  the  constitution.  It  there  means  Treaties  of  alli- 
ance or  of  navigation  and  commerce — Things  which  require 
a  more  profound  deliberation  than  common  acts  do,  because 
they  entail  on  the  parties  a  future  reciprocal  responsibility  and 
become  afterwards  a  supreme  law  on  each  of  the  contract- 
ing countries  which  neither  can  annull.  But  the  cession  of 
Louisiana  to  the  United  States  has  none  of  these  features  in  it. 
It  is  a  sale  and  purchase.  A  sole  act  which  when  finished,  the 
parties  have  no  more  to  do  with  each  other  than  other  buyers 
and  sellers  have.  It  has  no  future  reciprocal  consequences 
(which  is  one  of  the  marked  characters  of  a  Treaty)  annexed 
to  it  ;  and  the  idea  of  its  becoming  a  supreme  law  to  the  parties 
reciprocally  (which  is  another  of  the  characters  of  a  Treaty)  is 
inapplicable  in  the  present  case.  There  remains  nothing  for 
such  a  law  to  act  upon. 

"  I  love  the  restriction  in  the  constitution  which  takes  from 
the  Executive  the  power  of  making  treaties  of  his  own  will  : 
and  also  the  clause  which  requires  the  consent  of  two  thirds  of 
the  Senators,  because  we  cannot  be  too  cautious  in  involving 
and  entangling  ourselves  with  foreign  powers  ;  but  I  have 
an  equal  objection  against  extending  the  same  power  to  the 
senate  in  cases  to  which  it  is  not  strictly  and  constitutionally 
applicable,  because  it  is  giving  a  nullifying  power  to  a  minority. 
Treaties,  as  already  observed,  are  to  have  future  consequences 
and  whilst  they  remain,  remain  always  in  execution  externally 
as  well  as  internally,  and  therefore  it  is  better  to  run  the  risk  of 
losing  a  good  treaty  for  the  want  of  two  thirds  of  the  senate 
than  be  exposed  to  the  danger  of  ratifying  a  bad  one  by  a 
small  majority.  But  in  the  present  case  no  operation  is  to  fol- 
low but  what  acts  itself  within  our  own  Territory  and  under  our 
own  laws.  We  are  the  sole  power  concerned  after  the  cession 
is  accepted  and  the  money  paid,  and  therefore  the  cession 
is  not  a  Treaty  in  the  constitutional  meaning  of  the  word  sub- 
ject to  be  rejected  by  a  minority  in  the  senate. 


322  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1803 

"  The  question  whether  the  cession  shall  be  accepted  and  the 
bargain  closed  by  a  grant  of  money  for  the  purpose,  (which 
I  take  to  be  the  sole  question)  is  a  case  equally  open  to  both 
houses  of  congress,  and  if  there  is  any  distinction  of  formal 
right,  it  ought  according  to  the  constitution,  as  a  money  trans- 
action, to  begin  in  the  house  of  Representatives. 

"  I  suggest  these  matters  that  the  senate  may  not  be  taken 
unawares,  for  I  think  it  not  improbable  that  some  Fed,  who 
intends  to  negative  the  cession,  will  move  to  take  it  up  as  if  it 
were  a  Treaty  of  Alliance  or  of  Navigation  and  Commerce. 

"  The  object  here  is  an  increase  of  territory  for  a  valuable 
consideration.  It  is  altogether  a  home  concern — a  matter  of 
domestic  policy.  The  only  real  ratification  is  the  payment  of 
the  money,  and  as  all  verbal  ratification  without  this  goes 
for  nothing,  it  would  be  a  waste  of  time  and  expense  to  debate 
on  the  verbal  ratification  distinct  from  the  money  ratifica- 
tion. The  shortest  way,  as  it  appears  to  me,  would  be  to 
appoint  a  committee  to  bring  in  a  report  on  the  President's 
Message,  and  for  that  committee  to  report  a  bill  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  money.  The  french  Government,  as  the  seller  of 
the  property,  will  not  consider  anything  ratification  but  the 
payment  of  the  money  contracted  for. 

"  There  is  also  another  point,  necessary  to  be  aware  of,  which 
is,  to  accept  it  in  toto.  Any  alteration  or  modification  in  it,  or 
annexed  as  a  condition  is  so  far  fatal,  that  it  puts  it  in  the 
power  of  the  other  party  to  reject  the  whole  and  propose  new 
Terms.  There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  ratifying  in  part^ 
or  with  a  condition  annexed  to  it  and  the  ratification  to  be  bind- 
ing.   It  is  still  a  continuance  of  the  negociation. 

"  It  ought  to  be  presumed  that  the  American  ministers  have 
done  to  the  best  of  their  power  and  procured  the  best  possible 
terms,  and  that  being  immediately  on  the  spot  with  the  other 
party  they  were  better  Judges  of  the  whole,  and  of  what  could, 
or  could  not  be  done,  than  any  person  at  this  distance,  and 
unacquainted  with  many  of  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  can 
possibly  be. 

"  If  a  treaty,  a  contract,  or  a  cession  be  good  upon  the  whole, 
it  is  ill  policy  to  hazard  the  whole,  by  an  experiment  to  get  some 
trifle  in  it  altered.    The  right  way  of  proceeding  in  such  case  is 


1803I  "^^'^  AMERICAN  INQUISITION.  323 


to  make  sure  of  the  whole  by  ratifying  it,  and  then  instruct  the 
minister  to  propose  a  clause  to  be  added  to  the  Instrument  to 
obtain  the  amendment  or  alteration  wished  for.  This  was  the 
method  Congress  took  with  respect  to  the  Treaty  of  Commerce 
with  France  in  1778.  Congress  ratified  the  whole  and  proposed 
two  new  articles  which  were  agreed  to  by  France  and  added  to 
the  Treaty. 

"  There  is  according  to  newspaper  account  an  article  which 
admits  french  and  Spanish  vessels  on  the  same  terms  as  Ameri- 
can vessels.  But  this  does  not  make  it  a  commercial  Treaty. 
It  is  only  one  of  the  Items  in  the  payment  :  and  it  has  this  ad- 
vantage, that  it  joins  Spain  with  P'rance  in  making  the  cession 
and  is  an  encouragement  to  commerce  and  new  settlers. 

"  With  respect  to  the  purchase,  admitting  it  to  be  15  millions 
dollars,  it  is  an  advantageous  purchase.  The  revenue  alone 
purchased  as  an  annuity  or  rent  roll  is  worth  more — at  present 
I  suppose  the  revenue  will  pay  five  per  cent  for  the  purchase 
money. 

"  I  know  not  if  these  observations  will  be  of  any  use  to  you. 
I  am  in  a  retired  village  and  out  of  the  way  of  hearing  the  talk 
of  the  great  world.  But  I  see  that  the  Feds,  at  least  some  of 
them,  are  changing  their  tone  and  now  reprobating  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Louisiana  ;  and  the  only  way  they  can  take  to  lose  the 
affair  will  be  to  take  it  up  as  they  would  a  Treaty  of  Commerce 
and  annuU  it  by  a  Minority  ;  or  entangle  it  with  some  con- 
dition that  will  render  the  ratification  of  no  effect. 

"  I  believe  in  this  state  (Jersey)  we  shall  have  a  majority  at 
the  next  election.  We  gain  some  ground  and  lose  none  any- 
where. I  have  half  a  disposition  to  visit  the  Western  World 
next  spring  and  go  on  to  New  Orleans.  They  are  a  new  people 
and  unacquainted  with  the  principles  of  representative  govern- 
ment and  I  think  I  could  do  some  good  among  them. 

"  As  the  stage-boat  which  was  to  take  this  letter  to  the  Post- 
office  does  not  depart  till  to-morrow,  I  amuse  myself  with 
continuing  the  subject  after  I  had  intended  to  close  it. 

"  I  know  little  and  can  learn  but  little  of  the  extent  and 
present  population  of  Louisiana.  After  the  cession  be  com- 
pleated  and  the  territory  annexed  to  the  United  States  it  will,  I 
suppose,  be  formed  into  states,  one,  at  least,  to  begin  with. 


324 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1803 


The  people,  as  I  have  said,  are  new  to  us  and  we  to  them  and 
a  great  deal  will  depend  on  a  right  beginning.  As  they  have 
been  transferred  backward  and  forward  several  times  from  one 
European  Government  to  another  it  is  natural  to  conclude  they 
have  no  fixed  prejudices  with  respect  to  foreign  attachments, 
and  this  puts  them  in  a  fit  disposition  for  their  new  condition. 
The  established  religion  is  roman  ;  but  in  what  state  it  is  as  to 
exterior  ceremonies  (such  as  processions  and  celebrations),  I 
know  not.  Had  the  cession  to  france  continued  with  her, 
religion  I  suppose  would  have  been  put  on  the  same  footing  as 
it  is  in  that  country,  and  there  no  ceremonial  of  religion  can 
appear  on  the  streets  or  highways  ;  and  the  same  regulation  is 
particularly  necessary  now  or  there  will  soon  be  quarrells  and 
tumults  between  the  old  settlers  and  the  new.  The  Yankees 
will  not  move  out  of  the  road  for  a  little  wooden  Jesus  stuck 
on  a  stick  and  carried  in  procession  nor  kneel  in  the  dirt  to 
a  wooden  Virgin  Mary.  As  we  do  not  govern  the  territory  as 
provinces  but  incorporated  as  states,  religion  there  must  be  on 
the  same  footing  it  is  here,  and  Catholics  have  the  same  rights 
as  Catholics  have  with  us  and  no  others.  As  to  political  condi- 
tion the  Idea  proper  to  be  held  out  is,  that  we  have  neither 
conquered  them,  nor  bought  them,  but  formed  a  Union  with 
them  and  they  become  in  consequence  of  that  union  a  part  of 
the  national  sovereignty. 

"  The  present  Inhabitants  and  their  descendants  will  be  a 
majority  for  some  time,  but  new  emigrations  from  the  old  states 
and  from  Europe,  and  intermarriages,  will  soon  change  the  first 
face  of  things,  and  it  is  necessary  to  have  this  in  mind  when  the 
first  measures  shall  be  taken.  Everything  done  as  an  expedient 
grows  worse  every  day,  for  in  proportion  as  the  mind  grows 
up  to  the  full  standard  of  sight  it  disclaims  the  expedient. 
America  had  nearly  been  ruined  by  expedients  in  the  first 
stages  of  the  revolution,  and  perhaps  would  have  been  so, 
had  not  '  Common  Sense  '  broken  the  charm  and  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  sent  it  into  banishment. 

"  Yours  in  friendship 

"  remember  me  in  «  Thomas  Paine.' 

the  circle  of  your  friends." 

*  The  original  is  in  possession  of  Mr.  William  F.  Havermeyer,  Jr. 


1803]  THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION. 


Mr.  E.  M.  Woodward,  in  his  account  of  Borden- 
town,  mentions  among  the  "traditions"  of  the 
place,  that  Paine  used  to  meet  a  large  number  of 
gentlemen  at  the  "Washington  House,"  kept  by 
Debora  Applegate,  where  he  conversed  freely 
"with  any  proper  person  who  approached  him." 

"  Mr.  Paine  was  too  much  occupied  in  literary  pursuits  and 
writing  to  spend  a  great  deal  of  his  time  here,  but  he  generally- 
paid  several  visits  during  the  day.  His  drink  was  invariably 
brandy.  In  walking  he  was  generally  absorbed  in  deep 
thought,  seldom  noticed  any  one  as  he  passed,  unless  spoken  to, 
and  in  going  from  his  home  to  the  tavern  was  frequently  ob- 
served to  cross  the  street  several  times.  It  is  stated  that 
several  members  of  the  church  were  turned  from  their  faith  by 
him,  and  on  this  account,  and  the  general  feeling  of  the  com- 
munity against  him  for  his  opinions  on  religious  subjects,  he 
was  by  the  mass  of  the  people  held  in  odium,  which  feeling  to 
some  extent  was  extended  to  Col.  Kirkbride." 

These  "traditions"  were  recorded  in  1876. 
Paine's  "great  power  of  conversation  "  was  remem- 
bered. But  among  the  traditions,  even  of  the 
religious,  there  is  none  of  any  excess  in  drinking. 

Possibly  the  turning  of  several  church-members 
from  their  faith  may  not  have  been  so  much  due  to 
Paine  as  to  the  parsons,  in  showing  their  "  reli- 
gion "  as  a  gorgon  turning  hearts  to  stone  against  a 
benefactor  of  mankind.  One  day  Paine  went  with 
Colonel  Kirkbride  to  visit  Samuel  Rogers,  the 
Colonel's  brother-in-law,  at  Bellevue,  across  the 
river.  As  he  entered  the  door  Rogers  turned  his 
back,  refusing  his  old  friend's  hand,  because  it  had 
written  the  "  Age  of  Reason."  Presently  Borden- 
town  was  placarded  with  pictures  of  the  Devil  fly- 


326 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


ing  away  with  Paine.  The  pulpits  set  up  a  chorus 
of  vituperation.  Why  should  the  victim  spare  the 
altar  on  which  he  is  sacrificed,  and  justice  also  ? 
Dogma  had  chosen  to  grapple  with  the  old  man  in 
its  own  way.  That  it  was  able  to  break  a  driven 
leaf  Paine  could  admit  as  truly  as  Job  ;  but 
he  could  as  bravely  say  :  Withdraw  thy  hand 
from  me,  and  I  will  answer  thee,  or  thou  shalt 
answer  me  !  In  Paine  too  it  will  be  proved  that 
such  outrages  on  truth  and  friendship,  on  the 
rights  of  thought,  proceed  from  no  God,  but  from 
the  destructive  forces  once  personified  as  the 
adversary  of  man. 

Early  in  March  Paine  visited  New  York,  to  see 
Monroe  before  his  departure  for  France.  He 
drove  with  Kirkbride  to  Trenton  ;  but  so  furious 
was  the  pious  mob,  he  was  refused  a  seat  in  the 
Trenton  stage.  They  dined  at  Government  House, 
but  when  starting  for  Brunswick  were  hooted. 
These  were  the  people  for  whose  liberties  Paine 
had  marched  that  same  road  on  foot,  musket  in 
hand.  At  Trenton  insults  were  heaped  on  the 
man  who  by  camp-fires  had  written  the  Crisis, 
which  animated  the  conquerors  of  the  Hessians 
at  that  place,  in  "the  times  that  tried  men's  souls." 
These  people  he  helped  to  make  free, — free  to  cry 
Crticify  / 

Paine  had  just  written  to  Jefferson  that  the 
Louisianians  were  "perhaps  too  much  under  the 
influence  of  their  priests  to  be  sufficiently  free." 
Probably  the  same  thought  occurred  to  him  about 
people  nearer  home,  when  he  presently  heard 


1803I  THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION.  327 


of  Colonel  Kirkbride's  sudden  unpopularity,  and 
death.  On  October  3d  Paine  lost  this  faithful 
friend.' 

'  It  should  be  stated  that  Burlington  County,  in  which  Bordentown  is 
situated,  was  preponderantly  Federalist,  and  that  Trenton  was  in  the  hands 
of  a  Federalist  mob  of  young  well-to-do  rowdies.  The  editor  of  the  True 
American,  a  Republican  paper  to  which  Paine  had  contributed,  having 
commented  on  a  Fourth  of  July  orgie  of  those  rowdies  in  a  house  associated 
with  the  revolution,  was  set  upon  with  bludgeons  on  July  12th,  and  suffered 
serious  injuries.  The  Grand  Jury  refused  to  present  the  Federalist  ruffians, 
though  the  evidence  was  clear,  and  the  mob  had  free  course. 

The  facts  of  the  Paine  mob  are  these  :  after  dining  at  Government  House, 
Trenton,  Kirkbride  applied  for  a  seat  on  the  New  York  stage  for  Paine. 
The  owner,  Voorhis,  cursed  Paine  as  "  a  deist,"  and  said,  "  I  '11  be  damned 
if  he  shall  go  in  my  stage."  Another  stage-owner  also  refused,  saying, 
"  My  stage  and  horses  were  once  struck  by  lightning,  and  I  don't  want 
them  to  suffer  again."  When  Paine  and  Kirkbride  had  entered  their 
carriage  a  mob  surrounded  them  with  a  drum,  playing  the  "  rogue's  march." 
The  local  reporter  {True  American)  says,  "  Mr.  Paine  discovered  not  the 
least  emotion  of  fear  or  anger,  but  calmly  observed  that  such  conduct  had 
no  tendency  to  hurt  his  feelings  or  injure  his  fame."  The  mob  then  tried 
to  frighten  the  horse  with  the  drum,  and  succeeded,  but  the  two  gentlemen 
reached  a  friend's  house  in  Brunswick  in  safety.  A  letter  from  Trenton 
had  been  written  to  the  stage-master  there  also,  to  prevent  Paine  from 
securing  a  seat,  whether  with  success  does  not  appear. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES. 

The  Bonnevilles,  with  whom  Paine  had  resided 
in  Paris,  were  completely  impoverished  after  his 
departure.  They  resolved  to  follow  Paine  to 
America,  depending  on  his  promise  of  aid  should 
they  do  so.  Foreseeing  perils  in  France,  Nicolas, 
unable  himself  to  leave  at  once,  hurried  off  his  wife 
and  children — Benjamin,  Thomas,  and  Louis. 
Madame  Bonneville  would  appear  to  have  arrived 
in  August,  1803.  I  infer  this  because  Paine  writes, 
September  23d,  to  Jefferson  from  Stonington, 
Connecticut ;  and  later  letters  show  that  he  had 
been  in  New  York,  and  afterwards  placed  Thomas 
Paine  Bonneville  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Foster  (Uni- 
versalist)  of  Stonington  for  education.  Madame 
Bonneville  was  placed  in  his  house  at  Bordentown, 
where  she  was  to  teach  French. 

At  New  York,  Paine  found  both  religious  and 
political  parties  sharply  divided  over  him.  At 
Lovett's  Hotel,  where  he  stopped,  a  large  dinner 
was  given  him,  March  i8th,  seventy  being  present. 
One  of  the  active  promoters  of  this  dinner  was 
James  Cheetham,  editor  of  the  American  Citizen, 
who,  after  seriously  injuring  Paine  by  his  patron- 
age, became  his  malignant  enemy. 

328 


1803]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  329 


In  the  summer  of  1803  the  political  atmosphere 
was  in  a  tempestuous  condition,  owing  to  the  wide- 
spread accusation  that  Aaron  Burr  had  intrigued 
with  the  Federalists  against  Jefferson  to  gain  the 
presidency.  There  was  a  Society  in  New  York 
called  "  Republican  Greens,"  who,  on  Independence 
Day,  had  for  a  toast  "  Thomas  Paine,  the  Man  of 
the  People,"  and  who  seem  to  have  had  a  piece  of 
music  called  the  "  Rights  of  Man."  Paine  was  also 
apparently  the  hero  of  that  day  at  White  Plains, 
where  a  vast  crowd  assembled,  "  over  1,000," 
among  the  toasts  being  :  "  Thomas  Paine — the  bold 
advocate  of  rational  liberty — the  People's  friend." 
He  probably  reached  New  York  again  in  August. 
A  letter  for  "  Thomas  Payne  "  is  in  the  advertised 
Letter-list  of  August  6th,  and  in  the  American  Citi- 
zen (August  9th)  are  printed  (and  misprinted) 
"  Lines,  extempore,  by  Thomas  Paine,  July,  1803."  ^ 

'  "  Quick  as  the  lightning's  vivid  flash 
The  poet's  eye  o'er  Europe  rolls  ; 
Sees  battles  rage,  hears  tempests  crash, 
And  dims  at  horror's  threatening  scowls, 

"  Mark  ambition's  ruthless  king, 

With  crimsoned  banners  scathe  the  globe  ; 
While  trailing  after  conquest's  wing, 

Man's  festering  wounds  his  demons  probe. 

"  Palled  with  streams  of  reeking  gore 
That  stain  the  proud  imperial  day. 
He  turns  to  view  the  western  shore, 

Where  freedom  holds  her  boundless  sway. 

"  'T  is  here  her  sage  triumphant  sways 
An  empire  in  the  people's  love  ; 
*T  is  here  the  sovereign  will  obeys 
No  king  but  Him  who  rules  above." 


# 


330  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1803 

The  verses,  crudely  expressing  the  contrast  between 
President  Jefferson  and  King  George — or  Napo- 
leon, it  is  not  clear  which, — sufficiently  show  that 
Paine's  genius  was  not  extempore.  His  reputation 
as  a  patriotic  minstrel  was  high  ;  his  "  Hail,  great 
Republic,"  to  the  tune  of  "  Rule  Britannia,"  was  the 
established  Fourth-of-July  song,  and  it  was  even 
sung-  at  the  dinner  of  the  American  consul  in  Lon- 
don  (Erving)  March  4,  1803,  the  anniversary  of 
Jefferson's  election.  Possibly  the  extempore  lines 
were  sung  on  some  Fourth-of-July  occasion.  I  find 
"  Thomas  Paine  "  and  the  "  Rights  of  Man  "  favor- 
ite toasts  at  republican  celebrations  in  Virginia 
also  at  this  time.  In  New  York  we  may  discover 
Paine's  coming  and  going  by  rancorous  paragraphs 
concerning  him  in  xki^  Evening  Post}  Perhaps  the 
most  malignant  wrong  done  Paine  in  this  paper 
was  the  adoption  of  his  signature,  "  Common 
Sense,"  by  one  of  its  contributors ! 

'  On  July  1 2th  the  Evening  Post  (edited  by  William  Coleman)  tries  to  unite 
republicanism  and  infidelity  by  stating  that  Part  I.  of  the  "Age  of  Reason" 
was  sent  in  MS.  to  Mr.  Fellows  of  New  York,  and  in  the  following  year 
Part  II.  was  gratuitously  distributed  "from  what  is  now  the  office  of  the 
Aurora."  On  September  24th  that  paper  publishes  a  poem  about  Paine, 
ending  : 

"  And  having  spent  a  lengthy  life  in  evil, 
Return  again  unto  thy  parent  Devil  !  " 

Another  paragraph  says  that  Franklin  hired  Paine  in  London  to  come  to 
America  and  write  in  favor  of  the  Revolution, — a  remarkable  example  of 
federalist  heredity  from  "  Toryism."  On  September  27th  the  paper  prints  a 
letter  purporting  to  have  been  found  by  a  waiter  in  Lovett's  Hotel  after 
Paine's  departure, — a  long  letter  to  Paine,  by  some  red-revolutionary  friend, 
of  course  gloating  over  the  exquisite  horrors  filling  Europe  in  consequence  of 
the  "  Rights  of  Man."  The  pretended  letter  is  dated  "  Jan.  12,  1803,"  and 
signed  "  J.  Oldney."  The  paper's  correspondent  pretends  to  have  found  out 
Oldney,  and  conversed  with  him.  No  doubt  many  simple  people  believed 
the  whole  thing  genuine. 


1803]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.       33 1 


The  most  learned  physician  in  New  York,  Dr. 
Nicholas  Romayne,  invited  Paine  to  dinner,  where 
he  was  met  by  John  Pintard,  and  other  eminent 
citizens.  Pintard  said  to  Paine  :  "  I  have  read  and 
re-read  your  'Age  of  Reason,'  and  any  doubts 
which  I  before  entertained  of  the  truth  of  revela- 
tion have  been  removed  by  your  logic.  Yes,  sir, 
your  very  arguments  against  Christianity  have 
convinced  me  of  its  truth."  "  Well  then,"  answered 
Paine,  "  I  may  return  to  my  couch  to-night  with 
the  consolation  that  I  have  made  at  least  one 
Christian." '  This  authentic  anecdote  is  significant. 
John  Pintard,  thus  outdone  by  Paine  in  politeness, 
founded  the  Tammany  Society,  and  organized  the 
democratic  party.  When  the  "  Rights  of  Man  " 
appeared,  the  book  and  its  author  were  the  main 
toasts  of  the  Tammany  celebrations ;  but  it  was 
not  so  after  the  "Age  of  Reason"  had  appeared. 
For  John  Pintard  was  all  his  life  a  devotee  of 
Dutch  Reformed  orthodoxy.  Tammany,  having 
begun  with  the  populace,  had  by  this  time  got  up 
somewhat  in  society.  As  a  rule  the  "gentry  "  were 
Federalists,  though  they  kept  a  mob  in  their  back 
yard  to  fly  at  the  democrats  on  occasion.  But  with 
Jefferson  in  the  presidential  chair,  and  Clinton  vice- 
president,  Tammany  was  in  power.  To  hold  this 
power  Tammany  had  to  court  the  clergy.  So 
there  was  no  toast  to  Paine  in  the  Wigwam  of 
1803.^ 

President  Jefferson  was  very  anxious  about  the 
constitutional    points    involved  in    his  purchase 

'  Dr.  Francis'  "  Old  New  York,"  p.  140. 

'  The  New  York  Daily  Advertiser  published  the  \\hole  of  Part  I.  of  the 


332  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  ['803 

of  Louisiana,  and  solicited  Paine's  views  on  the 
whole  subject.  Paine  wrote  to  him  extended  com- 
munications, among  which  was  the  letter  of  Sep- 
tember 23d,  from  Stonington.  The  interest  of  the 
subject  is  now  hardly  sufficient  to  warrant  publi- 
cation of  the  whole  of  this  letter,  which,  however^ 
possesses  much  interest. 

"Your  two  favours  of  the  10  and  18  ult.  reached  me  at  this 
place  on  the  14th  inst.  ;  also  one  from  Mr.  Madison.  I  do 
not  suppose  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  thought  any- 
thing about  the  acquisition  of  new  territory,  and  even  if  they 
did  it  was  prudent  to  say  nothing  about  it,  as  it  might  have 
suggested  to  foreign  Nations  the  idea  that  we  contemplated 
foreign  conquest.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  one  of  those  cases 
with  which  the  Constitution  had  nothing  to  do,  and  which  can 
be  judged  of  only  by  the  circumstances  of  the  times  when  such 
a  case  shall  occur.  The  Constitution  could  not  foresee  that 
Spain  would  cede  Louisiana  to  France  or  to  England,  and 
therefore  it  could  not  determine  what  our  conduct  should 
be  in  consequence  of  such  an  event.  The  cession  makes 
no  alteration  in  the  Constitution  ;  it  only  extends  the  prin- 
ciples of  it  over  a  larger  territory,  and  this  certainly  is  within 
the  morality  of  the  Constitution,  and  not  contrary  to,  nor 
beyond,  the  expression  or  intention  of  any  of  its  articles  .  .  . 
Were  a  question  to  arise  it  would  apply,  not  to  the  Cession, 
because  it  violates  no  article  of  the  Constitution,  but  to  Ross 
and  Morris's  motion.    The  Constitution  empowers  Congress 

"  Rights  of  Man  "  in  1791  (May  6-27),  the  editor  being  then  John  Pintard. 
At  the  end  of  the  publication  a  poetical  tribute  to  Paine  was  printed.  Four 
of  the  lines  run  : 

"  Rous'd  by  the  reason  of  his  manly  page, 

Once  more  shall  Paine  a  listening  world  engage  ; 
From  reason's  source  a  bold  reform  he  brings, 
By  raising  up  mankind  he  pulls  down  kings." 

At  the  great  celebration  (October  12,  1792)  of  the  third  Centenary  of  the 
discovery  of  America,  by  the  sons  of  St,  Tammany,  New  York,  the  first  man 
toasted  after  Columbus  was  Paine,  and  next  to  Paine  "  The  Rights  of  Man." 
They  were  also  extolled  in  an  ode  composed  for  the  occasion,  and  sung. 


1803]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  333 

to  declare  war,  but  to  make  war  without  declaring  it  is  anti- 
constitutional.  It  is  like  attacking  an  unarmed  man  in  the 
dark.  There  is  also  another  reason  why  no  such  question 
should  arise.  The  english  Government  is  but  in  a  tottering 
condition  and  if  Bonaparte  succeeds,  that  Government  will 
break  up.  In  that  case  it  is  not  improbable  we  may 
obtain  Canada,  and  I  think  that  Bermuda  ought  to  belong 
to  the  United  States.  In  its  present  condition  it  is  a  nest 
for  piratical  privateers.  This  is  not  a  subject  to  be  spoken  of, 
but  it  may  be  proper  to  have  it  in  mind. 

"  The  latest  news  we  have  from  Europe  in  this  place  is  the 
insurrection  in  Dublin.  It  is  a  disheartening  circumstance 
to  the  english  Government,  as  they  are  now  putting  arms  into 
the  hands  of  people  who  but  a  few  weeks  before  they  would 
have  hung  had  they  found  a  pike  in  their  possession.  I  think 
the  probability  is  in  favour  of  the  descent  [on  England  by 
Bonaparte]    .    .  . 

"  I  shall  be  employed  the  ensuing  Winter  in  cutting  two 
or  three  thousand  Cords  of  Wood  on  my  farm  at  New 
Rochelle  for  the  New  York  market  distant  twenty  miles  by 
water.  The  Wood  is  worth  3^  dollars  per  load  as  it  stands. 
This  will  furnish  me  with  ready  money,  and  I  shall  then  be 
ready  for  whatever  may  present  itself  of  most  importance  next 
spring.  I  had  intended  to  build  myself  a  house  to  my  own 
taste,  and  a  workshop  for  my  mechanical  operations,  and 
make  a  collection,  as  authors  say,  of  my  works,  which  with 
-what  I  have  in  manuscript  will  make  four,  or  five  octavo 
volumes,  and  publish  them  by  subscription,  but  the  prospects 
that  are  now  opening  with  respect  to  England  hold  me  in 
suspence. 

"  It  has  been  customary  in  a  President's  discourse  to  say 
something  about  religion.  I  offer  you  a  thought  on  this  sub- 
ject. The  word,  religion,  used  as  a  word  en  masse  has  no 
application  to  a  country  like  America.  In  catholic  countries 
it  would  mean  exclusively  the  religion  of  the  romish  church  ; 
with  the  Jews,  the  jewish  religion  ;  in  England,  the  protestant 
religion  or  in  the  sense  of  the  english  church,  the  established 
religion  ;  with  the  Deists  it  would  mean  Deism  ;  with  the 
Turks,  Mahometism  &c.,  &c..  As  well  as  I  recollect  it  is  Lego, 
Relego,  Relegio,  Religion^  that  is  say,  tied  or  bound  by  an  oath 


334  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1803 

or  obligation.  The  french  use  the  word  properly  ;  when  a 
woman  enters  a  convent,  she  is  called  a  novitiate  ;  when  she 
takes  the  oath,  she  is  a  religieuse,  that  is,  she  is  bound  by  an 
oath.  Now  all  that  we  have  to  do,  as  a  Government  with  the 
word  religion,  in  this  country,  is  with  the  civil  rights  of  it,  and 
not  at  all  with  its  creeds.  Instead  therefore  of  using  the  word 
religion,  as  a  word  en  masse,  as  if  it  meant  a  creed,  it  would  be 
better  to  speak  only  of  its  civil  rights  ;  that  all  denominations 
of  religion  are  equally  protected,  that  none  are  dominatit,  none 
inferior,  that  the  rights  of  conscience  are  equal  to  every  denomina- 
tion and  to  every  individual  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  Government 
to  preserve  this  equality  of  conscientious  rights.  A  man  cannot 
be  called  a  hypocrite  for  defending  the  civil  rights  of  religion, 
but  he  may  be  suspected  of  insincerity  in  defending  its  creeds. 

"  I  suppose  you  will  find  it  proper  to  take  notice  of  the  im- 
pressment of  American  seamen  by  the  Captains  of  British  ves- 
sels, and  procure  a  list  of  such  captains  and  report  them  to 
their  government.  This  pretence  of  searching  for  british  sea- 
men is  a  new  pretence  for  visiting  and  searching  American 
vessels.    .    .  . 

"  I  am  passing  some  time  at  this  place  at  the  house  of  a 
friend  till  the  wood  cutting  time  comes  on,  and  I  shall  engage 
some  cutters  here  and  then  return  to  New  Rochelle.  I  wrote 
to  Mr.  Madison  concerning  the  report  that  the  british  Govern- 
ment had  cautioned  ours  not  to  pay  the  purchase  money  for 
Louisiana,  as  they  intended  to  take  it  for  themselves.  I  have 
received  his  [negative]  answer,  and  I  pray  you  make  him  my 
compliments. 

"  We  are  still  afflicted  with  the  yellow  fever,  and  the  Doctors 
are  disputing  whether  it  is  an  imported  or  a  domestic  disease. 
Would  it  not  be  a  good  measure  to  prohibit  the  arrival  of  all 
vessels  from  the  West  Indies  from  the  last  of  June  to  the  mid- 
dle of  October.  If  this  was  done  this  session  of  Congress,  and 
we  escaped  the  fever  next  summer,  we  should  always  know  how 
to  escape  it.  I  question  if  performing  quarantine  is  a  sufficient 
guard.  The  disease  may  be  in  the  cargo,  especially  that  part 
which  is  barrelled  up,  and  not  in  the  persons  on  board,  and 
when  that  cargo  is  opened  on  our  wharfs,  the  hot  steaming  air 
in  contact  with  the  ground  imbibes  the  infection.  I  can  con- 
ceive that  infected  air  can  be  barrelled  up,  not  in  a  hogshead 


1804]     NEW  ROCIIELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  335 


of  rum,  nor  perhaps  siicrc,  but  in  a  barrel  of  coffee.  I  am 
badly  off  in  this  place  for  pen  and  Ink,  and  short  of  paper,  I 
heard  yesterday  from  Boston  that  our  old  friend  S.  Adams  was 
at  the  point  of  death.    Accept  my  best  wishes." 

When  Madame  Bonneville  left  France  it  was 
understood  that  her  husband  would  soon  follow, 
but  he  did  not  come,  nor  was  any  letter  received 
from  him.  This  was  probably  the  most  important 
allusion  in  a  letter  of  Paine,  dated  New  York, 
March  i,  1804,  to  "Citizen  Skipwith,  Agent  Com- 
mercial d'Amerique,  Paris." 

"  Dear  Friend — I  have  just  a  moment  to  write  you  a  line 
by  a  friend  who  is  on  the  point  of  sailing  for  Bordeaux.  The 
Republican  interest  is  now  compleatly  triumphant.  The 
change  within  this  last  year  has  been  great.  We  have  now 
14  States  out  of  17, — N.  Hampshire,  Mass.  and  Connecticut 
stand  out.  I  much  question  if  any  person  will  be  started 
against  Mr.  Jefferson.  Burr  is  rejected  for  the  vice-presidency  ; 
he  is  now  putting  up  for  Governor  of  N.  York.  Mr.  Clinton 
will  be  run  for  vice-president.  Morgan  Lewis,  Chief  Justice 
of  the  State  of  N.  Y.  is  the  Republican  candidate  for  Governor 
of  that  State. 

"  I  have  not  received  a  line  from  Paris,  except  a  letter  from 
Este,  since  I  left  it.  We  have  now  been  nearly  80  days  with- 
out news  from  Europe.  What  is  Barlow  about  ?  I  have  not 
heard  anything  from  him  except  that  he  is  always  coming. 
What  is  Bonneville  about  ?  Not  a  line  has  been  received  from 
him.  Respectful  compliments  to  Mr.  Livingston  and  family. 
Yours  in  friendship." 

Madame  Bonneville,  unable  to  speak  English, 
found  Bordentown  dull,  and  soon  turned  up  in 
New  York.  She  ordered  rooms  in  Wilburn's 
boarding-house,  where  Paine  was  lodging,  and 
the  author  found  the  situation  rather  complicated. 
The  family  was  absolutely  without  means  of  their 


• 


336 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1804 


own,  and  Paine,  who  had  given  them  a  comfortable 
home  at  Bordentown,  was  annoyed  by  their  coming 
on  to  New  York.  Anxiety  is  shown  in  the  follow- 
ing letter  written  at  i6  Gold  St.,  New  York,  March 
24th,  to  "  Mr.  Hyer,  Bordenton,  N.  J." 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  received  your  letter  by  Mr.  Nixon,  and  also 
a  former  letter,  but  I  have  been  so  unwell  this  winter  with  a 
fit  of  gout,  tho'  not  so  bad  as  I  had  at  Bordenton  about  twenty 
years  ago,  that  I  could  not  write,  and  after  I  got  better  I  got 
a  fall  on  the  ice  in  the  garden  where  I  lodge  that  threw  me 
back  for  above  a  month.  I  was  obliged  to  get  a  person  to 
copy  off  the  letter  to  the  people  of  England,  published  in  the 
Aurora,  March  7,  as  I  dictated  it  verbally,  for  all  the  time  my 
complaint  continued.  My  health  and  spirits  were  as  good  as 
ever.  It  was  my  intention  to  have  cut  a  large  quantity  of 
wood  for  the  New  York  market,  and  in  that  case  you  would 
have  had  the  money  directly,  but  this  accident  and  the  gout 
prevented  my  doing  anything.  I  shall  now  have  to  take  up 
some  money  upon  it,  which  I  shall  do  by  the  first  of  May  to 
put  Mrs.  Bonneville  into  business,  and  I  shall  then  discharge 
her  bill.  In  the  mean  time  I  wish  you  to  receive  a  quarter's 
rent  due  on  the  ist  of  April  from  Mrs  Richardson,  at  $25  per 
ann.,  and  to  call  on  Mrs.  Read  for  40  or  50  dollars,  or  what 
you  can  get,  and  to  give  a  receipt  in  my  name.  Col.  Kirkbride 
should  have  discharged  your  bill,  it  was  what  he  engaged  to 
do.  Mrs.  Wharton  owes  for  the  rent  of  the  house  while  she 
lived  in  it,  unless  Col.  Kirkbride  has  taken  it  into  his  accounts. 
Samuel  Hileyar  owes  me  84  dollars  lent  him  in  hard  money. 
Mr.  Nixon  spake  to  me  about  hiring  my  house,  but  as  I  did 
not  know  if  Mrs.  Richardson  intended  to  stay  in  it  or  quit  it 
I  could  give  no  positive  answer,  but  said  I  would  write  to  you 
about  it.  Israel  Butler  also  writes  me  about  taking  at  the 
same  rent  as  Richardson  pays.  I  will  be  obliged  to  you  to 
let  the  house  as  you  may  judge  best.  I  shall  make  a  visit  to 
Bordenton  in  the  spring,  and  I  shall  call  at  your  house  first. 

"  There  have  been  several  arrivals  here  in  short  passages 
from  England.  P.  Porcupine,  I  see,  is  become  the  panegyrist 
of  Bonaparte.    You  will  see  it  in  the  Aurora  of  March  19, 


i804l     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  337 


and  also  the  message  of  Bonaparte  to  the  french  legislature. 
It  is  a  good  thing. 

"  Mrs.  Bonneville  sends  her  compliments.  She  would  have 
wrote,  but  she  cannot  yet  venture  to  write  in  English.  I  con- 
gratulate you  on  your  new  appointment. 

"Yours  in  friendship."  ' 

Paine's  letter  alluded  to  was  printed  in  the 
Aurora  with  the  following  note  : 

"  To  THE  Editor. — As  the  good  sense  of  the  people  in 
their  elections  has  now  put  the  affairs  of  America  in  a  pros- 
perous condition  at  home  and  abroad,  there  is  nothing  im- 
mediately important  for  the  subject  of  a  letter.  I  therefore 
send  you  a  piece  on  another  subject." 

The  piece  presently  appeared  as  a  pamphlet 
of  sixteen  pages  with  the  following  title  :  "  Thomas 
Paine  to  the  People  of  England,  on  the  Invasion 
of  England.  Philadelphia  :  Printed  at  the  Temple 
of  Reason  Press,  Arch  Street.  1804."  Once  more 
the  hope  had  risen  in  Paine's  breast  that  Napoleon 
was  to  turn  liberator,  and  that  England  was  to  be 
set  free.  "If  the  invasion  succeed  I  hope  Bona- 
parte will  remember  that  this  war  has  not  been 
provoked  by  the  people.  It  is  altogether  the  act 
of  the  government  without  their  consent  or  knowl- 
edge ;  and  though  the  late  peace  appears  to  have 
been  insidious  from  the  first,  on  the  part  of  the 
government,  it  was  received  by  the  people  with  a 
sincerity  of  joy."  He  still  hopes  that  the  English 
people  may  be  able  to  end  the  trouble  peacefully, 
by  compelling  Parliament  to  fulfil  the  Treaty  of 
Amiens,  naively  informing  them  that  "  a  Treaty 

'  I  am  indebted  for  this  letter  to  the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Society,  which  owns 
the  original. 


338 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


ought  to  be  fulfilled."  The  following  passages  may 
be  quoted  : 

"  In  casting  my  eye  over  England  and  America,  and  com- 
paring them  together,  the  difference  is  very  striking.  The  two 
countries  were  created  by  the  same  power,  and  peopled  from  the 
same  stock.  What  then  has  caused  the  difference  ?  Have  those 
who  emigrated  to  America  improved,  or  those  whom  they  left 
behind  degenerated  ?  .  .  .  We  see  America  flourishing  in 
peace,  cultivating  friendship  with  all  nations,  and  reducing  her 
public  debt  and  taxes,  incurred  by  the  revolution.  On  the 
contrary  we  see  England  almost  perpetually  in  war,  or  warlike 
disputes,  and  her  debt  and  taxes  continually  increasing. 
Could  we  suppose  a  stranger,  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
origin  of  the  two  nations,  he  would  from  observation  conclude 
that  America  was  the  old  country,  experienced  and  sage, 
and  England  the  new,  eccentric  and  wild.  Scarcely  had  Eng- 
land drawn  home  her  troops  from  America,  after  the  revo- 
lutionary war,  than  she  was  on  the  point  of  plunging  herself 
into  a  war  with  Holland,  on  account  of  the  Stadtholder  ;  then, 
with  Russia  ;  then  with  Spain  on  account  of  the  Nootka  cat- 
skins  ;  and  actually  with  France  to  prevent  her  revolution. 
Scarcely  had  she  made  peace  with  France,  and  before  she  had 
fulfilled  her  own  part  of  the  Treaty,  than  she  declared  war 
again,  to  avoid  fulfilling  the  Treaty.  In  her  Treaty  of  peace 
with  America,  she  engaged  to  evacuate  the  western  posts 
within  six  months  ;  but,  having  obtained  peace,  she  refused 
to  fulfil  the  conditions,  and  kept  possession  of  the  posts,  and 
embroiled  herself  in  an  Indian  war.'  In  her  Treaty  of  peace 
with  France,  she  engaged  to  evacuate  Malta  within  three 
months  ;  but,  having  obtained  peace,  she  refused  to  evacuate 
Malta,  and  began  a  new  war." 

Paine  points  out  that  the  failure  of  the  French 
Revolution  was  due  to  "  the  provocative  inter- 
ference of  foreign  powers,  of  which  Pitt  was  the 
principal  and  vindictive  agent,"  and  affirms  the 

'  Paine's  case  is  not  quite  sound  at  this  point.  The  Americans  had  not, 
on  their  side,  fulfilled  the  condition  of  paying  their  English  debts. 


1804I     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  339 


successor  representative  government  in  the  United 
States  after  thirty  years'  trial.  "  The  people  of 
England  have  now  two  revolutions  before  them, — 
the  one  as  an  example,  the  other  as  a  warning. 
Their  own  wisdom  will  direct  them  what  to  choose 
and  what  to  avoid  ;  and  in  everything  which  re- 
gards their  happiness,  combined  with  the  common 
good  of  mankind,  I  wish  them  honor  and  sue- 
cess. 

During  this  summer,  Paine  wrote  a  brilliant 
paper  on  a  memorial  sent  to  Congress  from  the 
French  inhabitants  of  Louisiana.  They  demanded 
immediate  admission  to  equal  Statehood,  also  the 
right  to  continue  the  importation  of  negro  slaves. 
Paine  reminds  the  memorialists  of  the  "  mischief 
caused  in  France  by  the  possession  of  power  be- 
fore they  understood  principles,"  After  explaining 
their  position,  and  the  freedom  they  have  acquired 
by  the  merits  of  others,  he  points  out  their  ignor- 
ance of  human  "  rights  "  as  shown  in  their  guilty 
notion  that  to  enslave  others  is  among  them.  "  Dare 
you  put  up  a  petition  to  Heaven  for  such  a 
power,  without  fearing  to  be  struck  from  the  earth 
by  its  justice  ?  Why,  then,  do  you  ask  it  of  man 
against  man  ?  Do  you  want  to  renew  in  Louisiana 
the  horrors  of  Domingo  ?  " 

This  article  (dated  September  22d)  produced 
great  effect.  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  in  a 
letter  to  Albert  Gallatin  (October  14th),  advises 
"  the  printing  of  .  .  .  thousand  copies  of 
Tom  Paine's  answer  to  their  remonstrance,  and 
transmitting  them  by  as  many  thousand  troops, 
who  can  speak  a  language  perfectly  intelligible 


340 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1804 


to  the  people  of  Louisiana,  whatever  that  of  their 
governor  may  be." 

Nicolas  Bonneville  still  giving  no  sign,  and 
Madame  being  uneconomical  in  her  notions  of 
money,  Paine  thought  it  necessary — morally  and 
financially — to  let  it  be  known  that  he  was  not  re- 
sponsible for  her  debts.  When,  therefore,  Wilburn 
applied  to  him  for  her  board  ($35),  Paine  declined 
to  pay,  and  was  sued.  Paine  pleaded  non  assumpsit, 
and,  after  gaining  the  case,  paid  Wilburn  the 
money. 

It  presently  turned  out  that  the  surveillance  of 
Nicolas  Bonneville  did  not  permit  him  to  leave 
France,  and,  as  he  was  not  permitted  to  resume  his 
journal  or  publications,  he  could  neither  join  his 
family  nor  assist  them. 

Paine  now  resolved  to  reside  on  his  farm.  The 
following  note  was  written  to  Col.  John  Fellows. 
It  is  dated  at  New  Rochelle,  July  9th  : 

"  Fellow  Citizen, — As  the  weather  is  now  getting  hot  at 
New  York,  and  the  people  begin  to  get  out  of  town,  you  may 
as  well  come  up  here  and  help  me  settle  my  accounts  with  the 
man  who  lives  on  the  place.  You  will  be  able  to  do  this  better 
than  I  shall,  and  in  the  mean  time  I  can  go  on  with  my  literary 
works,  without  having  my  mind  taken  off  by  affairs  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind.  I  have  received  a  packet  from  Governor  Clinton, 
enclosing  what  I  wrote  for.  If  you  come  up  by  the  stage  you 
will  stop  at  the  post-office,  and  they  will  direct  you  the  way  to 
the  farm.  It  is  only  a  pleasant  walk.  I  send  a  price  for  the 
Prospect  ;  if  the  plan  mentioned  in  it  is  pursued,  it  will  open 
away  to  enlarge  and  give  establishment  to  the  deistical  church  ; 
but  of  this  and  some  other  things  we  will  talk  when  you  come 
up,  and  the  sooner  the  better.    Yours  in  friendship." 

Paine  was  presently  enjoying  himself  on  his  farm 


1805]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.       34 1 


at  New  Rochelle,  and  Madame  Bonneville  began 
to  keep  house  for  him. 

'■  It  is  a  pleasant  and  healthy  situation  [he  wrote  to  Jeffer- 
son somewhat  later],  commanding  a  prospect  always  green  and 
peaceable,  as  New  Rochelle  j)roduces  a  great  deal  of  grass  and 
hay.  The  farm  contains  three  hundred  acres,  about  one  hun- 
dred of  which  is  meadow  land,  one  hundred  grazing  and  village 
land,  and  the  remainder  woodland.  It  is  an  oblong  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  in  length.  I  have  sold  off  sixty-one  acres  and 
a  half  for  four  thousand  and  twenty  dollars.  With  this  money 
I  shall  improve  the  other  part,  and  build  an  addition  34  feet 
by  32  to  the  present  dwelling." 

He  goes  on  into  an  architectural  description, 
with  drawings,  of  the  arched  roof  he  intends  to 
build,  the  present  form  of  roof  being  "  unpleasing 
to  the  eye."  He  also  draws  an  oak  floor  such  as 
they  make  in  Paris,  which  he  means  to  imitate. 

With  a  black  cook,  Rachel  Gidney,  the  family 
seemed  to  be  getting  on  with  fair  comfort  ;  but  on 
Christmas  Eve  an  event  occurred  which  came  near 
bringing  Paine's  plans  to  an  abrupt  conclusion. 
This  is  related  in  a  letter  to  William  Carver,  New 
York,  dated  January  i6th,  at  New  Rochelle. 

"  Esteemed  Friend, — I  have  reed,  two  letters  from  you, 
one  giving  an  account  of  your  taking  Thomas  to  Mr.  Foster' 
— the  other  dated  Jany.  12 — I  did  not  answer  the  first  because 
I  hoped  to  see  you  the  ne.xt  Saturday  or  the  Saturday  after. 
What  you  heard  of  a  gun  being  fired  into  the  room  is  true — 
Robert  and  Rachel  were  both  gone  out  to  keep  Christmas  Eve 
and  about  eight  o'clock  at  Night  the  gun  were  fired.  I  ran 
immediately  out,  one  of  Mr.  Dean's  boys  with  me,  but  the 
person  that  had  done  it  was  gone.  I  directly  suspected  who 
it  was,  and  I  halloed  to  him  by  name,  that  he  was  discovered. 
I  did  this  that  the  party  who  fired  might  know  I  was  on  the 
watch.  I  cannot  find  any  ball,  but  whatever  the  gun  was 
'  Thomas  Bonneville,  Paine's  godson,  at  school  in  Stonington. 


342 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


charged  with  passed  through  about  three  or  four  inches  below 
the  window  making  a  hole  large  enough  to  a  finger  to  go 
through — the  muzzle  must  have  been  very  near  as  the  place  is 
black  with  the  powder,  and  the  glass  of  the  window  is  shattered 
to  pieces.  Mr  Shute  after  examining  the  place  and  getting 
what  information  could  be  had,  issued  a  warrant  to  take  up 
Derrick,  and  after  examination  committed  him. 

"He  is  now  on  bail  (five  hundred  dollars)  to  take  his  trial  at 
the  supreme  Court  in  May  next.  Derrick  owes  me  forty-eight 
dollars  for  which  I  have  his  note,  and  he  was  to  work  it  out  in 
making  stone  fence  which  he  has  not  even  begun  and  besides 
this  I  have  had  to  pay  fortytwo  pounds  eleven  shillings  for 
which  I  had  passed  my  word  for  him  at  Mr.  Pelton's  store. 
Derrick  borrowed  the  Gun  under  pretence  of  giving  Mrs. 
Bayeaux  a  Christmas  Gun.  He  was  with  Purdy  about  two 
hours  before  the  attack  on  the  house  was  made  and  he  came 
from  thence  to  Dean's  half  drunk  and  brought  with  him  a 
bottle  of  Rum,  and  Purdy  was  with  him  when  he  was  taken  up. 

"  I  am  exceedingly  well  in  health  and  shall  always  be  glad 
to  see  you.  Hubbs  tells  me  that  your  horse  is  getting  better. 
Mrs.  Shute  sent  for  the  horse  and  took  him  when  the  first  snow 
came  but  he  leaped  the  fences  and  came  back.  Hubbs  says 
there  is  a  bone  broke.  If  this  be  the  case  I  suppose  he  has  broke 
or  cracked  it  in  leaping  a  fence  when  he  was  lame  on  the  other 
hind  leg,  and  hung  with  his  hind  legs  in  the  fence.  I  am  glad 
to  hear  what  you  tell  me  of  Thomas.  He  shall  not  want  for 
anything  that  is  necessary  if  he  be  a  good  boy  for  he  has  no 
friend  but  me.  You  have  not  given  me  any  account  about  the 
meeting  house.  Remember  me  to  our  Friends.  Yours  in 
friendship."  ' 

The  window  of  the  room  said  to  have  been 
Paine's  study  is  close  to  the  ground,  and  it  is  mar- 
vellous that  he  was  not  murdered.^ 

'  I  am  indebted  for  this  letter  to  Dr.  Clair  J.  Grace,  of  England,  whose 
uncle,  Daniel  Constable,  probably  got  it  from  Carver. 

'  Derrick  (or  Dederick)  appears  by  the  records  at  White  Plains  to  have 
been  brought  up  for  trial  May  ig,  1806,  and  to  have  been  recognized  in  the 
sum  of  $500  for  his  appearance  at  the  next  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  and 
General  Gaol  Delivery,  and  in  the  meantime  to  keep  the  peace  towards  the 


1805]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  343 


The  most  momentous  change  which  had  come 
over  America  during  Paine's  absence  was  the  pro- 
slavery  reaction.  This  had  set  in  with  the  first 
Congress.  An  effort  was  made  by  the  Virginia 
representatives  to  check  the  slave  traffic  by  impos- 
ing a  duty  of  $10  on  each  negro  imported,  but  was 
defeated  by  an  alliance  of  members  from  more 
Southern  States  and  professedly  antislavery  men  of 
the  North.  The  Southern  leader  in  this  first  victory 
of  slavery  in  Congress  was  Major  Jackson  of  Geor- 
gia, who  defended  the  institution  as  scriptural  and 
civilizing.  The  aged  Dr.  Franklin  published  {Fed- 
eral Gazette,  March  25,  1790)  a  parody  of  Jackson's 
speech,  purporting  to  be  a  speech  uttered  in  1687  by 
a  Divan  of  Algiers  in  defence  of  piracy  and  slavery, 
against  a  sect  of  Erika,  or  Purists,  who  had  peti- 
tioned for  their  suppression.  Franklin  was  now 
president  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society, 
founded  in  Philadelphia  in  1775  five  weeks  after 
the  appearance  of  Paine's  scheme  of  emancipation 
(March  8,  1775).  Dr.  Rush  was  also  active  in  the 
cause,  and  to  him  Paine  wrote  (March  16,  1790) 
the  letter  on  the  subject  elsewhere  quoted  (i., 
p.  271).  This  letter  was  published  by  Rush  {Co- 
lumbian Magazine,  vol.  ii.,  p.  318)  while  the  country 
was  still  agitated  by  the  debate  which  was  going  on 
in  Congress  at  the  time  when  it  was  written,  on  a 
petition  of  the  Antislavery  Society,  signed  by 
Franklin,  —  his  last  public   act.     Franklin  died 

People,  and  especially  towards  Thomas  Payne  (sic).  Paine,  Christopher 
Hubbs,  and  Andrew  A.  Dean  were  recognized  in  $50  to  appear  and  give  evi- 
dence against  Derrick.  Nothing  further  appears  in  the  records  (examined 
for  me  by  Mr.  B.  D.  Washburn  up  to  18 10).  It  is  pretty  certain  that  Paine 
did  not  press  the  charge. 


344 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


April  I  7,  I  790,  twenty-five  days  after  the  close  of 
the  debate,  in  which  he  was  bitterly  denounced  by 
the  proslavery  party.  Washington  had  pronounced 
the  petition  "  inopportune," — his  presidential  man- 
sion in  New  York  was  a  few  steps  from  the  slave- 
market, — Jefferson  (now  Secretary  of  State)  had  no 
word  to  say  for  it,  Madison  had  smoothed  over  the 
matter  by  a  compromise.  Thenceforth  slavery  had 
become  a  suppressed  subject,  and  the  slave  trade, 
whenever  broached  in  Congress,  had  maintained  its 
immunity.  In  1803,  even  under  Jefferson's  admin- 
istration, the  negroes  fleeing  from  oppression  in 
Domingo  were  forbidden  asylum  in  America,  be- 
cause it  was  feared  that  they  would  incite  servile 
insurrections.  That  the  United  States,  under 
presidency  of  Jefferson,  should  stand  aloof  from 
the  struggle  of  the  negroes  in  Domingo  for 
liberty,  cut  Paine  to  the  heart.  Unperturbed  by 
the  attempt  made  on  his  own  life  a  few  days  before, 
he  wrote  to  Jefferson  on  New  Year's  Day,  1805, 
(from  New  Rochelle,)  what  may  be  regarded  as  an 
appeal : 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  have  some  thoughts  of  coming  to  Washing- 
ton this  winter,  as  I  may  as  well  spend  a  part  of  it  there  as 
elsewhere.  But  lest  bad  roads  or  any  other  circumstance 
should  prevent  me  I  suggest  a  thought  for  your  consideration, 
and  I  shall  be  glad  if  in  this  case,  as  in  that  of  Louisiana,  we 
may  happen  to  think  alike  without  knowing  what  each  other 
had  thought  of. 

"  The  affair  of  Domingo  will  cause  some  trouble  in  either  of 
the  cases  in  which  it  now  stands.  If  armed  merchantmen 
force  their  way  through  the  blockading  fleet  it  will  embarrass 
us  with  the  french  Government  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  if 
the  people  of  Domingo  think  that  we  show  a  partiality  to  the 
french  injurious  to  them  there  is  danger  they  will  turn  Pirates 


1805]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  345 


upon  us,  and  become  more  injurious  on  account  of  vicinity 
than  the  barbary  powers,  and  England  will  encourage  it,  as  she 
encourages  the  Indians.  Domingo  is  lost  to  France  either  as 
to  the  Government  or  the  possession  of  it.  But  if  away  could 
be  found  out  to  bring  about  a  peace  between  france  and  Do- 
mingo through  the  mediation,  and  under  the  guarantee  of  the 
United  States,  it  would  be  beneficial  to  all  parties,  and  give  us 
a  great  commercial  and  political  standing,  not  only  with  the 
present  people  of  Domingo  but  with  the  West  Indies  generally. 
And  when  we  have  gained  their  confidence  by  acts  of  justice 
and  friendship,  they  will  listen  to  our  advice  in  matters  of 
Civilization  and  Government,  and  prevent  the  danger  of  their 
becoming  pirates,  which  I  think  they  will  be,  if  driven  to  des- 
peration. 

"  The  United  States  is  the  only  power  that  can  undertake  a 
measure  of  this  kind.  She  is  now  the  Parent  of  the  Western 
world,  and  her  knowledge  of  the  local  circumstances  of  it  gives 
her  an  advantage  in  a  matter  of  this  kind  superior  to  any 
European  Nation.  She  is  enabled  by  situation,  and  grow[ing] 
importance  to  become  a  guarantee,  and  to  see,  as  far  as  her 
advice  and  influence  can  operate,  that  the  conditions  on  the 
part  of  Domingo  be  fulfilled.  It  is  also  a  measure  that  accords 
with  the  humanity  of  her  principles,  with  her  policy,  and  her 
commercial  interest. 

"  All  that  Domingo  wants  of  France,  is,  that  France  agree 
to  let  her  alone,  and  withdraw  her  forces  by  sea  and  land  ;  and 
in  return  for  this  Domingo  to  give  her  a  monopoly  of  her 
commerce  for  a  term  of  years, — that  is,  to  import  from  France 
all  the  utensils  and  manufactures  she  may  have  occasion  to  use 
or  consume  (except  such  as  she  can  more  conveniently  procure 
from  the  manufactories  of  the  United  States),  and  to  pay  for 
them  in  produce.  France  will  gain  more  by  this  than  she  can 
expect  to  do  even  by  a  conquest  of  the  Island,  and  the  advan- 
tage to  America  will  be  that  she  will  become  the  carrier  of 
both,  at  least  during  the  present  war. 

"  There  was  considerable  dislike  in  Paris  against  the  Expe- 
dition to  Domingo  j  and  the  events  that  have  since  taken  place 
were  then  often  predicted.  The  opinion  that  generally  pre- 
vailed at  that  time  was  that  the  commerce  of  the  Island  was 
better  than  the  conquest  of  it, — that  the  conquest  could  not 


346  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1805 

be  accomplished  without  destroying  the  negroes,  and  in  that 
case  the  Island  would  be  of  no  value. 

"  I  think  it  might  be  signified  to  the  french  Government, 
yourself  is  the  best  judge  of  the  means,  that  the  United  States 
are  disposed  to  undertake  an  accommodation  so  as  to  put  an 
end  to  this  otherwise  endless  slaughter  on  both  sides,  and  to 
procure  to  France  the  best  advantages  in  point  of  commerce 
that  the  state  of  things  will  admit  of.  Such  an  offer,  whether 
accepted  or  not,  cannot  but  be  well  received,  and  may  lead  to 
a  good  end. 

■'There  is  now  a  fine  snow,  and  if  it  continues  I  intend  to 
set  off  for  Philadelphia  in  about  eight  days,  and  from  thence 
to  Washington.  I  congratulate  your  constituents  on  the  success 
of  the  election  for  President  and  Vice-President. 

"Yours  in  friendship, 

"Thomas  Paine." 

The  journey  to  Washington  was  given  up,  and 
Paine  had  to  content  himself  with  his  pen.  He 
took  in  several  newspapers,  and  was  as  keenly  alive 
as  ever  to  the  movements  of  the  world.  His  chief 
anxiety  was  lest  some  concession  might  be  made 
to  the  Louisianians  about  the  slave  trade,  that 
region  being  an  emporium  of  the  traffic  which 
grew  more  enterprising  and  brutal  as  its  term 
was  at  hand.  Much  was  said  of  the  great  need 
of  the  newly  acquired  region  for  more  laborers,  and 
it  was  known  that  Jefferson  was  by  no  means  so 
severe  in  his  opposition  to  slavery  as  he  was  once 
supposed  to  be.  The  President  repeatedly  invited 
Paine's  views,  and  they  were  given  fully  and  freely. 
The  following  extracts  are  from  a  letter  dated  New 
York,  January  25,  1805  : 

"  Mr.  Levy  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Wingate  called  on  me  at  N. 
York,  where  I  happened  to  be  when  they  arrived  on  their 
Journey  from  Washington  to  the  Eastward  :  I  find  by  Mr. 
Lincoln  that  the  Louisiana  Memorialists  will  have  to  return  as 


1805]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  347 


they  came  and  the  more  decisively  Congress  put  an  end  to  this 
business  the  better.  The  Cession  of  Louisiana  is  a  great 
acquisition  ;  but  great  as  it  is  it  would  be  an  incumbrance  on 
the  Union  were  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners  to  be  granted, 
nor  would  the  lands  be  worth  settling  if  the  settlers  are  to  be 
under  a  french  jurisdiction.  .  .  .  When  the  emigrations 
from  the  United  States  into  Louisiana  become  equal  to  the 
number  of  french  inhabitants  it  may  then  be  proper  and  right 
to  erect  such  part  where  such  equality  exists  into  a  constitu- 
tional state  ;  but  to  do  it  now  would  be  sending  the  american 
settlers  into  exile.  .  .  .  For  my  own  part,  I  wish  the  name 
of  Louisiana  to  be  lost,  and  this  may  in  a  great  measure  be 
done  by  giving  names  to  the  new  states  that  will  serve  as 
discriptive  of  their  situation  or  condition.  France  lost  the 
names  and  almost  the  remembrance  of  provinces  by  dividing 
them  into  departments  with  appropriate  names. 

"  Next  to  the  acquisition  of  the  territory  and  the  Govern- 
ment of  it  is  that  of  settling  it.  The  people  of  the  Eastern 
States  are  the  best  settlers  of  a  new  country,  and  of  people 
from  abroad  the  German  Peasantry  are  the  best.  The  Irish 
in  general  are  generous  and  dissolute.  The  Scotch  turn  their 
attention  to  traffic,  and  the  English  to  manufactures.  These 
people  are  more  fitted  to  live  in  cities  than  to  be  cultivators 
of  new  lands.  I  know  not  if  in  Virginia  they  are  much  ac- 
quainted with  the  importation  of  German  redemptioners,  that 
is,  servants  indented  for  a  term  of  years.  The  best  farmers 
in  Pennsylvania  are  those  who  came  over  in  this  manner  or 
the  descendants  of  them.  The  price  before  the  war  used  to 
be  twenty  pounds  Pennsylvania  currency  for  an  indented 
servant  for  four  years,  that  is,  the  ship  owner,  got  twenty 
pounds  per  head  passage  money,  so  that  upon  two  hundred 
persons  he  would  receive  after  their  arrival  four  thousand 
pounds  paid  by  the  persons  who  purchased  the  time  of  their 
indentures  which  was  generally  four  years.  These  would  be 
the  best  people,  of  foreigners,  to  bring  into  Louisiana — because 
they  would  grow  to  be  citizens.  Whereas  bringing  poor 
negroes  to  work  the  lands  in  a  state  of  slavery  and  wretched- 
ness, is,  besides  the  immorality  of  it,  the  certain  way  of  pre- 
venting population  and  consequently  of  preventing  revenue. 
I  question  if  the  revenue  arising  from  ten  Negroes  in  the 


348 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


consumption  of  imported  articles  is  equal  to  that  of  one  white 
citizen.  In  the  articles  of  dress  and  of  the  table  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  make  a  comparison. 

"  These  matters  though  they  do  not  belong  to  the  class  of 
principles  are  proper  subjects  for  the  consideration  of  Gov- 
ernment ;  and  it  is  always  fortunate  when  the  interests  of 
Government  and  that  of  humanity  act  unitedly.  But  I  much 
doubt  if  the  Germans  would  come  to  be  under  a  french  Juris- 
diction. Congress  must  frame  the  laws  under  which  they  are 
to  serve  out  their  time  ;  after  which  Congress  might  give  them 
a  few  acres  of  land  to  begin  with  for  themselves  and  they 
would  soon  be  able  to  buy  more.  I  am  inclined  to  believe 
that  by  adopting  this  method  the  Country  will  be  more  peopled 
in  about  twenty  years  from  the  present  time  than  it  has  been 
in  all  the  times  of  the  french  and  Spaniards.  Spain,  I  believe, 
held  it  chiefly  as  a  barrier  to  her  dominions  in  Mexico,  and 
the  less  it  was  improved  the  better  it  agreed  with  that  policy  ; 
and  as  to  france  she  never  shewed  any  great  disposition  or 
gave  any  great  encouragement  to  colonizing.  It  is  chiefly 
small  countries,  that  are  straitened  for  room  at  home,  like 
Holland  and  England,  that  go  in  quest  of  foreign  settle- 
ments.   .    .  . 

"  I  have  again  seen  and  talked  with  the  gentleman  from 
Hamburg.  He  tells  me  that  some  Vessels  under  pretence  of 
shipping  persons  to  America  carried  them  to  England  to  serve 
as  soldiers  and  sailors.  He  tells  me  he  has  the  Edict  or 
Proclamation  of  the  Senate  of  Hamburg  forbidding  persons 
shipping  themselves  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  and 
that  he  will  give  me  a  copy  of  it,  which  if  he  does  soon  enough 
I  will  send  with  this  letter.  He  says  that  the  American  Consul 
has  been  spoken  to  respecting  this  kidnapping  business  under 
American  pretences,  but  that  he  says  he  has  no  authority  to 
interfere.  The  German  members  of  Congress,  or  the  Phila- 
delphia merchants  or  ship-owners  who  have  been  in  the  prac- 
tice of  importing  German  redemptioners,  can  give  you  better 
information  respecting  the  business  of  importation  than  I  can. 
But  the  redemptioners  thus  imported  must  be  at  the  charge  of 
the  Captain  or  ship  owner  till  their  time  is  sold.  Some  of  the 
quaker  Merchants  of  Philadelphia  went  a  great  deal  into  the 
importation  of  German  servants  or  redemptioners.    It  agreed 


1 8o5  ]     NE  W  ROCHE LLE  A  ND  THE  BONNE  VILLES.       3  49 


with  the  morality  of  their  principles  that  of  bettering  people's 
condition,  and  to  put  an  end  to  the  practice  of  importing 
slaves.  I  think  it  not  an  unreasonable  estimation  to  suppose 
that  the  population  of  Louisiana  may  be  increased  ten  thousand 
souls  every  year.  What  retards  the  settlement  of  it  is  the 
want  of  labourers,  and  until  labourers  can  be  had  the  sale  of 
the  lands  will  be  slow.  Were  I  twenty  years  younger,  and  my 
name  and  reputation  as  well  known  in  European  countries  as 
it  is  now,  I  would  contract  for  a  quantity  of  land  in  Louisiana 
and  go  to  Europe  and  bring  over  settlers.    .    .  . 

"  It  is  probable  that  towards  the  close  of  the  session  I  may 
make  an  excursion  to  Washington.  The  piece  on  Gouverneur 
Morris's  Oration  on  Hamilton  and  that  on  the  Louisiana 
Memorial  are  the  last  I  have  published  ;  and  as  every  thing  of 
public  affairs  is  now  on  a  good  ground  I  shall  do  as  I  did  after 
the  War,  remain  a  quiet  spectator  and  attend  now  to  my  own 
affairs. 

"  I  intend  making  a  collection  of  all  the  pieces  I  have  pub- 
lished, beginning  with  Common  Sense,  and  of  what  I  have  by 
me  in  manuscript,  and  publish  them  by  subscription.  I  have 
deferred  doing  this  till  the  presidential  election  should  be 
over,  but  I  believe  there  was  not  much  occasion  for  that  cau- 
tion. There  is  more  hypocrisy  than  bigotry  in  America. 
When  I  was  in  Connecticut  the  summer  before  last,  I  fell  in 
company  with  some  Baptists  among  whom  were  three  Ministers. 
The  conversation  turned  on  the  election  for  President,  and  one 
of  them  who  appeared  to  be  a  leading  man  said  '  They  cry  out 
against  Mr.  Jefferson  because,  they  say  he  is  a  Deist.  Well,  a 
Deist  may  be  a  good  man,  and  if  he  think  it  right,  it  is  right 
to  him.  For  my  own  part,'  said  he,  '  I  had  rather  vote  for  a 
Deist  than  for  a  blue-skin  presbyterian.'  '  You  judge  right,' 
said  I,  '  for  a  man  that  is  not  of  any  of  the  sectaries  will  hold 
the  balance  even  between  all ;  but  give  power  to  a  bigot  of  any 
sectary  and  he  will  use  it  to  the  oppression  of  the  rest,  as  the 
blue-skins  do  in  connection.'  They  all  agree  in  this  senti- 
ment, and  I  have  always  found  it  assented  to  in  any  company 
I  have  had  occasion  to  use  it. 

"I  judge  the  collection  I  speak  of  will  make  five  volumes 
octavo  of  four  hundred  pages  each  at  two  dollars  a  volume  to 
be  paid  on  delivery  ;  and  as  they  will  be  delivered  separately, 


350  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1805 

as  fast  as  they  can  be  printed  and  bound  the  subscribers  may 
stop  when  they  please.  The  three  first  volumes  will  be  politi- 
cal and  each  piece  will  be  accompanied  with  an  account  of  the 
state  of  affairs  at  the  time  it  was  written,  whether  in  America, 
france,  or  England,  which  will  also  shew  the  occasion  of  writ- 
ing it.  The  first  expression  in  the  first  N°'  of  the  Crisis  pub- 
lished the  19th  December  '76  is  '  These  are  the  times  that  try 
tnen's  souls'  It  is  therefore  necessary  as  explanatory  to  the 
expression  in  all  future  times  to  shew  what  those  times  were. 
The  two  last  volumes  will  be  theological  and  those  who  do  not 
chuse  to  take  them  may  let  them  alone.  They  will  have  the 
right  to  do  so,  by  the  conditions  of  the  subscription.  I  shall 
also  make  a  miscellaneous  Volume  of  correspondence,  Essays, 
and  some  pieces  of  Poetry,  which  I  believe  will  have  some 
claim  to  originality.    .  . 

"  I  find  by  the  Captain  [from  New  Orleans]  above  men- 
tioned that  several  Liverpool  ships  have  been  at  New  Orleans. 
It  is  chiefly  the  people  of  Liverpool  that  employ  themselves 
in  the  slave  trade  and  they  bring  cargoes  of  those  unfortunate 
Negroes  to  take  back  in  return  the  hard  money  and  the  pro- 
duce of  the  country.  Had  I  the  command  of  the  elements  I 
would  blast  Liverpool  with  fire  and  brimstone.  It  is  the 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  of  brutality.    .    .  . 

"  I  recollect  when  in  France  that  you  spoke  of  a  plan  of 
making  the  Negroes  tenants  on  a  plantation,  that  is,  alotting 
each  Negroe  family  a  quantity  of  land  for  which  they  were  to 
pay  to  the  owner  a  certain  quantity  of  produce.  I  think  that 
numbers  of  our  free  negroes  might  be  provided  for  in  this 
manner  in  Louisiana.  The  best  way  that  occurs  to  me  is  for 
Congress  to  give  them  their  passage  to  New  Orleans,  then  for 
them  to  hire  themselves  out  to  the  planters  for  one  or  two 
years  ;  they  would  by  this  means  learn  plantation  business, 
after  which  to  place  them  on  a  tract  of  land  as  before  men- 
tioned. A  great  many  good  things  may  now  be  done  ;  and  I 
please  myself  with  the  idea  of  suggesting  my  thoughts  to  you. 

"  Old  Captain  Landais  who  lives  at  Brooklyn  on  Long 
Island  opposite  New  York  calls  sometimes  to  see  me.  I  knew 
him  in  Paris.  He  is  a  very  respectable  old  man.  I  wish 
something  had  been  done  for  him  in  Congress  on  his  petition  ; 
for  I  think  something  is  due  to  him,  nor  do  I  see  how  the  Statute 


1805]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.       35  I 


of  limitation  can  consistently  apply  to  him.  The  law  in  John 
Adams's  administration,  which  cut  off  all  commerce  and  com- 
munication with  france,  cut  him  off  from  the  chance  of  com- 
ing to  America  to  put  in  his  claim.  I  suppose  that  the  claims 
of  some  of  our  merchants  on  England,  france  and  Spain  is 
more  than  6  or  7  years  standing  yet  no  law  of  limitation,  that 
I  know  of  take  place  between  nations  or  between  individuals 
of  different  nations.  I  consider  a  statute  of  limitation  to  be  a 
domestic  law,  and  can  only  have  a  domestic  opperation.  Dr. 
Miller,  one  of  the  New  York  Senators  in  Congress,  knows 
Landais  and  can  give  you  an  account  of  him. 

"  Concerning  my  former  letter,  on  Domingo,  I  intended  had  I 
come  to  Washington  to  have  talked  with  Pichon  about  it — if  you 
had  approved  that  method,  for  it  can  only  be  brought  forward 
in  an  indirect  way.  The  two  Emperors  are  at  too  great  a  dis- 
tance in  objects  and  in  colour  to  have  any  intercourse  but  by 
Fire  and  Sword,  yet  something  I  think  might  be  done.  It  is 
time  I  should  close  this  long  epistle.    Yours  in  friendship." 

Paine  made  but  a  brief  stay  in  New  York  (where 
he  boarded  with  William  Carver),  His  next  letter 
(April  22d)  is  from  New  Rochelle,  written  to  John 
Fellows,  an  auctioneer  in  New  York  City,  one  of 
his  most  faithful  friends. 

"  Citizen  :  I  send  this  by  the  N.  Rochelle  boat  and  have 
desired  the  boatman  to  call  on  you  with  it.  He  is  to  bring  up 
Bebia  and  Thomas  and  I  will  be  obliged  to  you  to  see  them 
safe  on  board.    The  boat  will  leave  N.  Y.  on  friday. 

"  I  have  left  my  pen  knife  at  Carver's.  It  is,  I  believe,  in  the 
writing  desk.  It  is  a  small  french  pen  knife  that  slides  into 
the  handle.  I  wish  Carver  would  look  behind  the  chest  in  the 
bed  room.  I  miss  some  papers  that  I  suppose  are  fallen  down 
there.  The  boys  will  bring  up  with  them  one  pair  of  the 
blankets  Mrs.  Bonneville  took  down  and  also  my  best  blanket 
which  is  at  Carver's. — I  send  enclosed  three  dollars  for  a 
ream  of  writing  paper  and  one  dollar  for  some  letter  paper, 
and  porterage  to  the  boat.  I  wish  you  to  give  the  boys  some 
good  advice  when  you  go  with  them,  and  tell  them  that  the 


35-  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1805 

better  they  behave  the  better  it  will  be  for  them.  I  am  now 
their  only  dependance,  and  they  ought  to  know  it.  Yours  in 
friendship." 

"  All  my  Nos.  of  the  Prospect,  while  I  was  at  Carver's,  are 
left  there.  The  boys  can  bring  them.  I  have  received  no  No. 
since  I  came  to  New  Rochelle."  ' 

The  Thomas  mentioned  in  this  letter  was  Paine's 
godson,  and  "  Bebia "  was  Benjamin, — the  late 
Brigadier-General  Bonneville,  U.  S.  A,  The  third 
son,  Louis,  had  been  sent  to  his  father  in  France. 
The  Prospectw2iS  Elihu  Palmer's  rationalistic  paper. 

Early  in  this  year  a  series  of  charges  affecting 
Jefferson's  public  and  private  character  were  pub- 
lished by  one  Hulbert,  on  the  authority  of  Thomas 
Turner  of  Virginia.  Beginning  with  an  old  charge 
of  cowardice,  while  Governor  (of  which  Jefferson 
had  been  acquitted  by  the  Legislature  of  Virginia), 
the  accusation  proceeded  to  instances  of  immoral- 
ity, persons  and  places  being  named.  The  follow- 
ing letter  from  New  Rochelle,  July  19th,  to  John 
Fellows  enclosed  Paine's  reply,  which  appeared  in 
the  American  Citizen,  July  23d  and  24th  : 

"  Citizen — I  inclose  you  two  pieces  for  Cheetham's  paper, 
which  I  wish  you  to  give  to  him  yourself.  He  may  publish  one 
No.  in  one  daily  paper,  and  the  other  number  in  the  next 
daily  paper,  and  then  both  in  his  country  paper.  There  has 
been  a  great  deal  of  anonimous  («V)  abuse  thrown  out  in  the 
federal  papers  against  Mr.  Jefferson,  but  until  some  names 
could  be  got  hold  of  it  was  fighting  the  air  to  take  any  notice 
of  them.  We  have  now  got  hold  of  two  names,  your  townsman 
Hulbert,  the  hypocritical  Infidel  of  Sheffield,  and  Thomas 
Turner  of  Virginia,  his  correspondent.  I  have  already  given 
Hulbert  a  basting  with  my  name  to  it,  because  he  made  use  of 
my  name  in  his  speech  in  the  Mass.  legislature.     Turner  has 

'  This  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Grenville  Kane,  Tuxedo,  N.  Y. 


1805]     NEW  KOCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  353 


not  given  me  the  same  cause  in  the  letter  he  wrote  (and  evi- 
dently) to  Hulbert,  and  which  Hulbert,  (for  it  could  be  no  other 
person)  has  published  in  the  Repertory  to  vindicate  himself. 
Turner  has  detailed  his  charges  against  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  I 
have  taken  them  up  one  by  one,  which  is  the  first  time  the 
opportunity  has  offered  for  doing  it  ;  for  before  this  it  was 
promiscuous  abuse.  I  have  not  signed  it  either  with  my  name 
or  signature  (Common  Sense)  because  I  found  myself  obliged, 
in  order  to  made  such  scoundrels  feel  a  little  smart,  to  go 
somewhat  out  of  my  usual  manner  of  writing,  but  there  are 
some  sentiments  and  some  expressions  that  will  be  supposed 
to  be  in  my  stile,  and  I  have  no  objection  to  that  supposition, 
but  I  do  not  wish  Mr.  Jefferson  to  be  obliged  to  know  it  is  from 
me. 

"  Since  receiving  your  letter,  which  contained  no  direct  in- 
formation of  any  thing  I  wrote  to  you  about,  I  have  written 
myself  to  Mr.  Barrett  accompanied  with  a  piece  for  the  editor 
of  the  Baltimore  Evening  Post,  who  is  an  acquaintance  of  his, 
but  I  have  received  no  answer  from  Mr.  B.,  neither  has  the 
piece  been  published  in  the  Evening  Post.  I  will  be  obliged 
to  you  to  call  on  him  &  to  inform  me  about  it.  You  did  not 
tell  me  if  you  called  upon  Foster  ;  but  at  any  rate  do  not  delay 
the  enclosed. — I  do  not  trouble  you  with  any  messages  or  com- 
pliments, for  you  never  deliver  any.    Your's  in  friendship.'" 

By  a  minute  comparison  of  the  two  alleged 
specifications  of  immorality,  Paine  proved  that  one 
was  intrinsically  absurd,  and  the  other  without 
trustworthy  testimony.  As  for  the  charge  of 
cowardice,  Paine  contended  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
a  civil  magistrate  to  move  out  of  danger,  as  Con- 
gress had  done  in  the  Revolution.  The  article  was 
signed  "A  Spark  from  the  Altar  of  '76,"  but  the 
writer  was  easily  recognized.  The  service  thus 
done  Jefferson  was  greater  than  can  now  be  easily 
realized. 

'  I  am  indebted  for  this  letter  to  Mr.  John  M.  Robertson,  editor  of  the 
-National  Reformer,  London. 


354 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Another  paper  by  Paine  was  on  "  Constitutions, 
Governments,  and  Charters."  It  was  an  argument 
to  prove  the  unconstitutionaHty  in  New  York  of  the 
power  assumed  by  the  legislature  to  grant  charters. 
This  defeated  the  object  of  annual  elections,  by 
placing  the  act  of  one  legislature  beyond  the  reach 
of  its  successor.  He  proposes  that  all  matters  of 
"  extraordinary  legislation,"  such  as  those  involving 
grants  of  land  and  incorporations  of  companies, 
shall  be  passed  only  by  a  legislature  succeeding  the 
one  in  which  it  was  proposed.  "Had  such  an 
article  been  originally  in  the  Constitution  [of  New 
York]  the  bribery  and  corruption  employed  to 
seduce  and  manage  the  members  of  the  late  legis- 
lature, in  the  affair  of  the  Merchants'  Bank,  could 
not  have  taken  place.  It  would  not  have  been 
worth  while  to  bribe  men  to  do  what  they  had  no 
power  of  doing." 

Madame  Bonneville  hated  country  life,  and  in- 
sisted on  going  to  New  York.  Paine  was  not 
sorry  to  have  her  leave,  as  she  could  not  yet  talk 
English,  and  did  not  appreciate  Paine's  idea  of 
plain  living  and  high  thinking.  She  apparently 
had  a  notion  that  Paine  had  a  mint  of  money,  and, 
like  so  many  others,  might  have  attributed  to  par- 
simony efforts  the  unpaid  author  was  making  to 
save  enough  to  give  her  children,  practically  father- 
less, some  start  in  life.  The  philosophic  solitude 
in  which  he  was  left  at  New  Rochelle  is  described 
in  a  letter  (July  31st)  to  John  Fellows,  in  New  York. 

"  It  is  certainly  best  that  Mrs.  Bonneville  go  into  some 
family  as  a  teacher,  for  she  has  not  the  least  talent  of  mana- 
ging affairs  for  herself.    She  may  send  Bebia  up  to  me.    I  will 


l8os]     NEW  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  355 


take  care  of  him  for  his  own  sake  and  his  father's,  but  that  is 
all  I  have  to  say.  ...  I  am  master  of  an  empty  house,  or 
nearly  so.  I  have  six  chairs  and  a  table,  a  straw-bed,  a  feather- 
bed, and  a  bag  of  straw  for  Thomas,  a  tea  kettle,  an  iron  pot, 
an  iron  baking  pan,  a  frying  pan,  a  gridiron,  cups,  saucers, 
plates  and  dishes,  knives  and  forks,  two  candlesticks  and  a  pair 
of  snuffers.  I  have  a  pair  of  fine  oxen  and  an  ox-cart,  a  good 
horse,  a  Chair,  and  a  one-horse  cart ;  a  cow,  and  a  sow  and 
9  pigs.  When  you  come  you  must  take  such  fare  as  you 
meet  with,  for  I  live  upon  tea,  milk,  fruit-pies,  plain  dumplins, 
and  a  piece  of  meat  when  I  get  it  ;  but  I  live  with  that 
retirement  and  quiet  that  suit  me.  Mrs.  Bonneville  was  an 
encumbrance  upon  me  all  the  while  she  was  here,  for  she  would 
not  do  anything,  not  even  make  an  apple  dumplin  for  her  own 
children.  If  you  cannot  make  yourself  up  a  straw  bed,  I  can 
let  you  have  blankets,  and  you  will  have  no  occasion  to  go  over 
to  the  tavern  to  sleep. 

"  As  I  do  not  see  any  federal  papers,  except  by  accident,  I 
know  not  if  they  have  attempted  any  remarks  or  criticisms  on 
my  Eighth  Letter,  [or]  the  piece  on  Constitutional  Govern- 
ments and  Charters,  the  two  numbers  on  Turner's  letter,  and 
also  the  piece  on  Hulbert.  As  to  anonymous  paragraphs,  it  is 
not  worth  noticing  them.  I  consider  the  generality  of  such 
editors  only  as  a  part  of  their  press,  and  let  them  pass. — I 
want  to  come  to  Morrisania,  and  it  is  probable  I  may  come  on 
to  N.  Y.,  but  I  wish  you  to  answer  this  letter  first. — Yours  in 
friendship." 

It  must  not  be  supposed  from  what  Paine  says 
of  Madame  Bonneville  that  there  was  anything 
acrimonious  in  their  relations.  She  was  thirty-one 
years  younger  than  Paine,  fond  of  the  world,  hand- 
some. The  old  gentleman,  all  day  occupied  with 
writing,  could  give  her  little  companionship,  even 
if  he  could  have  conversed  in  French.  But  he 
indulged  her  in  every  way,  gave  her  more  money 

'  I  am  indebted  for  an  exact  copy  of  the  letter  from  which  this  is  extracted 
to  Dr.  Garnett  of  the  British  Museum,  though  it  is  not  in  that  institution. 


356  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1805 

than  he  could  afford,  devc'ed  his  ever  decreasing 
means  to  her  family.  She  had  boundless  reverence 
for  him,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  had  no  taste  for 
country  life.  Probably,  too,  after  Dederick's  attempt 
on  Paine's  life  she  became  nervous  in  the  lonely 
house.  So  she  had  gone  to  New  York,  where  she 
presently  found  good  occupation  as  a  teacher  of 
French  in  several  families.  Her  sons,  however, 
were  fond  of  New  Rochelle,  and  of  Paine,  who  had 
a  knack  of  amusing  children,  and  never  failed  to 
win  their  affection.^ 

The  spring  of  1805  at  New  Rochelle  was  a 
pleasant  one  for  Paine.  He  wrote  his  last  political 
pamphlet,  which  was  printed  by  Duane,  Philadel- 
phia, with  the  title  :  "  Thomas  Paine  to  the  Citizens 
of  Pennsylvania,  on  the  Proposal  for  Calling  a  Con- 
vention." It  opens  with  a  reference  to  his  former 
life  and  work  in  Philadelphia.  "  Removed  as  I 
now  am  from  the  place,  and  detached  from  every- 
thing of  personal  party,  I  address  this  token  to 
you  on  the  ground  of  principle,  and  in  remembrance 
of  former  times  and  friendships."  He  gives  an 
historical  account  of  the  negative  or  veto-power, 
finding  it  the  English  Parliament's  badge  of  dis- 
grace under  William  of  Normandy,  a  defence  of 
personal  prerogative  that  ought  to  find  no  place  in 
a  republic.  He  advises  that  in  the  new  Constitu- 
tion the  principle  of  arbitration,  outside  of  courts, 

'  In  the  Tarrytown  Argus,  October  i8,  1890,  appeared  an  interesting 
notice  of  the  Rev.  Alexander  Davis  (Methodist),  byC.  K.  B[uchanan]  in 
which  it  is  stated  that  Davis,  a  native  of  New  Rochelle,  remembered  the 
affection  of  Paine,  who  "would  bring  him  round-hearts  and  hold  him 
on  his  knee."  Many  such  recollections  of  his  little  neighbors  have  been 
reported. 


1805]     NEW  ROCHEI.LR  AND  THE  BONNEVILLES.  357 


should  be  established.  The  governor  should  pos- 
sess no  power  of  patronage  ;  he  should  make  one  in 
a  Council  of  Appointments.  The  Senate  is  an  im- 
itation of  the  House  of  Lords.  The  Representa- 
tives should  be  divided  by  lot  into  two  equal  parts, 
sitting  in  different  chambers.  One  half,  by  not 
being  entangled  in  the  debate  of  the  other  on  the 
issue  submitted,  nor  committed  by  voting,  would 
become  silently  possessed  of  the  arguments,  and  be 
in  a  calm  position  to  review  the  whole.  The  A'otes 
of  the  two  houses  should  be  added  together,  and 
the  majority  decide.  Judges  should  be  removable 
by  some  constitutional  mode,  without  the  formality 
of  impeachment  at  "stated  periods."  (In  1807  Paine 
wrote  to  Senator  Mitchell  of  New  York  suggesting 
an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  by  which  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  might 
be  removed  by  the  President  for  reasonable  cause, 
though  insufficient  for  impeachment,  on  the  address 
of  a  majority  of  both  Houses  of  Congress.) 

In  this  pamphlet  was  included  the  paper  already 
mentioned  (on  Charters,  etc.),  addressed  to  the 
people  of  New  York.  The  two  essays  prove  that 
there  was  no  abatement  in  Paine's  intellect,  and 
that  despite  occasional  "  flings  "  at  the  "  Feds," — 
retorts  on  their  perpetual  naggings, — he  was  still 
occupied  with  the  principles  of  political  philosophy. 

At  this  time  Paine  had  put  the  two  young  Bon- 
nevilles  at  a  school  in  New  Rochelle,  where  they 
also  boarded.  He  had  too  much  solitude  in  the 
house,  and  too  little  nourishment  for  so  much  work. 
So  the  house  was  let  and  he  was  taken  in  as  a 
boarder  by  Mrs.   Bayeaux,  in  the  old  Bayeaux 


358 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


House,  which  is  still  standing,' — but  Paine's  pecu- 
niary situation  now  gave  him  anxiety.  He  was 
earning  nothing,  his  means  were  found  to  be  far  less 
than  he'  supposed,  the  needs  of  the  Bonnevilles 
increasing.  Considering  the  important  defensive 
articles  he  had  written  for  the  President,  and  their 
long  friendship,  he  ventured  (September  30th)  to 
allude  to  his  situation  and  to  remind  him  that  his 
State,  Virginia,  had  once  proposed  to  give  him  a 
tract  of  land,  but  had  not  done  so.  He  suggests 
that  Congress  should  remember  his  services. 

"  But  I  wish  you  to  be  assured  that  whatever  event  this 
proposal  may  take  it  will  make  no  alteration  in  my  principles 
or  my  conduct.  I  have  been  a  volunteer  to  the  world  for 
thirty  years  without  taking  profits  from  anything  I  have  pub- 
lished in  America  or  Europe.  I  have  relinquished  all  profits 
that  those  publications  might  come  cheap  among  the  people 
for  whom  they  were  intended — Yours  in  friendship." 

This  was  followed  by  another  note  (November 
14th)  asking  if  it  had  been  received.  What  answer 
came  from  the  President  does  not  appear. 

About  this  time  Paine  published  an  essay  on 
"  The  cause  of  the  Yellow  Fever,  and  the  means 
of  preventing  it  in  places  not  yet  infected  with  it. 
Addressed  to  the  Board  of  Health  in  America." 
The  treatise,  which  he  dates  June  27th,  is  noticed 
by  Dr.  Francis  as  timely.  Paine  points  out  that  the 
epidemic  which  almost  annually  afflicted  New  York, 
had  been  unknown  to  the  Indians  ;  that  it  began 
around  the  wharves,  and  did  not  reach  the  higher 


'  Mrs.  Bayeaux  is  mentioned  in  Paine's  letter  about  Dederick's  attempt 
on  his  life. 


1 805]     NE  W  ROCHELLE  AND  THE  BONNE  V^LLES.       3  5 9 

parts  of  the  city.  He  does  not  believe  the  disease 
certainly  imported  from  the  West  Indies,  since  it  is 
not  carried  from  New  York  to  other  places.  He 
thinks  that  similar  filthy  conditions  of  the  wharves 
and  the  water  about  them  generate  the  miasma 
alike  in  the  West  Indies  and  in  New  York.  It 
would  probably  be  escaped  if  the  wharves  were 
built  on  stone  or  iron  arches,  permitting  the  tides 
to  cleanse  the  shore  and  carry  away  the  accumu- 
lations of  vegetable  and  animal  matter  decaying 
around  every  ship  and  dock.  He  particularly  pro- 
poses the  use  of  arches  for  wharves  about  to  be 
constructed  at  Corlder's  Hook  and  on  the  North 
River. 

Dr.  Francis  justly  remarks,  in  his  "  Old  New 
York,"  that  Paine's  writings  were  usually  suggested 
by  some  occasion.  Besides  this  instance  of  the 
essay  on  the  yellow  fever,  he  mentions  one  on  the 
origin  of  Freemasonry,  there  being  an  agitation 
in  New  York  concerning  that  fraternity.  But  this 
essay — in  which  Paine,  with  ingenuity  and  learning, 
traces  Freemasonry  to  the  ancient  solar  mythology 
also  identified  with  Christian  mythology— was  not 
published  during  his  life.  It  was  published  by 
Madame  Bonneville  with  the  passages  affecting 
Christianity  omitted.  The  original  manuscript 
was  obtained,  however,  and  published  with  an 
extended  preface,  criticizing  Paine's  theory,  the 
preface  being  in  turn  criticized  by  Paine's  editor. 
The  preface  was  probably  written  by  Colonel 
Fellows,  author  of  a  large  work  on  Freemasonry. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 

When  Paine  left  Bordentown,  on  March  ist 
1803,  driving  past  placards  of  the  devil  flying  away 
with  him,  and  hooted  by  a  pious  mob  at  Trenton,  it 
was  with  hope  of  a  happy  reunion  with  old  friends 
in  more  enlightened  New  York.  Col.  Few,  former- 
ly senator  from  Georgia,  his  friend  of  many  years, 
married  Paine's  correspondent,  Kitty  Nicholson,  to 
whom  was  written  the  beautiful  letter  from  London 
(i.,  p.  247),  Col.  Few  had  become  a  leading  man. 
in  New  York,  and  his  home,  and  that  of  the  Nichol- 
sons, were  of  highest  social  distinction.  Paine's 
arrival  at  Lovett's  Hotel  was  well  known,  but  not 
one  of  those  former  friends  came  near  him.  "  They 
were  actively  as  well  as  passively  religious," 
says  Henry  Adams,  "  and  their  relations  with 
Paine  after  his  return  to  America  in  1802  were 
those  of  compassion  only,  for  his  intemperate  and 
offensive  habits,  and  intimacy  was  impossible."^ 
But  Mr.  Adams  will  vainly  search  his  materials 
for  any  intimation  at  that  time  of  the  intemperate 
or  offensive  habits. 

The  "compassion  "  is  due  to  those  devotees  of 
an  idol  requiring  sacrifice  of  friendship,  loyalty,  and 

'  "  Life  of  Albert  Gallatin."    Gallatin  continued  to  visit  Paine. 
360 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


intelligence.  What  a  mistake  they  made  !  The 
old  author  was  as  a  grand  organ  from  which  a  cun- 
ning hand  might  bring  music  to  be  remembered 
through  the  generations.  In  that  brain  were  stored 
memories  of  the  great  Americans,  Frenchmen, 
Englishmen  who  acted  in  the  revolutionary  dramas, 
and  of  whom  he  loved  to  talk.  What  would  a 
diary  of  interviews  with  Paine,  written  by  his  friend 
Kitty  Few,  be  now  worth  ?  To  intolerance,  the  least 
pardonable  form  of  ignorance,  must  be  credited 
the  failure  of  those  former  friends,  who  supposed 
themselves  educated,  to  make  more  of  Thomas 
Paine  than  a  scarred  monument  of  ah  Age  of  Un- 
reason. 

But  the  ostracism  of  Paine  by  the  society  which, 
as  Henry  Adams  states,  had  once  courted  him  "  as 
the  greatest  literary  genius  of  his  day,"  was  not  due 
merely  to  his  religious  views,  which  were  those  of 
various  statesmen  who  had  incurred  no  such  odium. 
There  was  at  work  a  lingering  dislike  and  distrust 
of  the  common  people.  Deism  had  been  rather 
aristocratic.  From  the  scholastic  study,  where 
heresies  once  written  only  in  Latin  were  daintily 
wrapped  up  in  metaphysics,  from  drawing-rooms 
where  cynical  smiles  went  round  at  Methodism, 
and  other  forms  of  "  Christianity  in  earnest,"  Paine 
carried  heresy  to  the  people.  And  he  brought  it 
as  a  religion, — as  fire  from  the  fervid  heaven  that 
orthodoxy  had  monopolized.  The  popularity  of 
his  writing,  the  revivalistic  earnestness  of  his  pro- 
test against  dogmas  common  to  all  sects,  were 
revolutionary  ;  and  while  the  vulgar  bigots  were 
binding  him  on  their  rock  of  ages,  and  tearing  his 


362 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


vitals,  most  of  the  educated,  the  social  leaders,  were 
too  prudent  to  manifest  any  sympathy  they  may 
have  felt/ 

It  were  unjust  to  suppose  that  Paine  met  with 
nothing  but  abuse  and  maltreatment  from  ministers 
of  serious  orthodoxy  in  New  York.  They  had 
warmly  opposed  his  views,  even  denounced  them, 
but  the  controversy  seems  to  have  died  away  until 
he  took  part  in  the  deistic  propaganda  of  Elihu 
Palmer.^  The  following  to  Col.  Fellows  (July  31st) 
shows  Paine  much  interested  in  the  "cause"  : 

"  I  am  glad  that  Palmer  and  Foster  have  got  together.  It 
will  greatly  help  the  cause  on.  I  enclose  a  letter  I  received  a 
few  days  since  from  Groton,  in  Connecticut.  The  letter  is 
well  written,  and  with  a  good  deal  of  sincere  enthusiasm.  The 
publication  of  it  would  do  good,  but  there  is  an  impropriety  in 
publishing  a  man's  name  to  a  private  letter.  You  may  show 
the  letter  to  Palmer  and  Foster.  .  .  .  Remember  me  to  my 
much  respected  friend  Carver  and  tell  him  I  am  sure  we  shall 
succeed  if  we  hold  on.  We  have  already  silenced  the  clamor 
of  the  priests.  They  act  now  as  if  they  would  say,  let  us  alone 
and  we  will  let  you  alone.  You  do  not  tell  me  if  the  Prospect 
goes  on.  As  Carver  will  want  pay  he  may  have  it  from  me, 
and  pay  when  it  suits  him  ;  but  I  expect  he  will  take  a  ride  up 
some  Saturday,  and  then  he  can  chuse  for  himself." 

The  result  of  this  was  that  Paine  passed  the 
winter  in  New  York,  where   he  threw  himself 

'  When  Paine  first  reached  New  York,  1803,  he  was  (March  5th)  entertained 
at  supper  by  John  Crauford.  For  being  present  Eliakim  Ford,  a  Baptist 
elder,  was  furiously  denounced,  as  were  others  of  the  company. 

'  An  exception  was  the  leading  Presbyterian,  John  Mason,  who  lived 
to  denounce  Channing  as  "  the  devil's  disciple."  Grant  Thorburn  was 
psalm-singer  in  this  Scotch  preacher's  church.  Curiosity  to  see  the  lion 
led  Thorburn  to  visit  Paine,  for  which  he  was  "  suspended."  Thorburn 
afterwards  made  amends  by  fathering  Cheetham's  slanders  of  Paine  after 
Cheetham  had  become  too  infamous  to  quote. 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHF.US. 


warmly  into  the  theistic  movement,  and  no 
doubt  occasionally  spoke  from  Elihu  Palmer's 
platform. 

The  rationalists  who  gathered  around  Elihu 
Palmer  in  New  York  were  called  the  "  Columbian 
Illuminati."  The  pompous  epithet  looks  like  an 
effort  to  connect  them  with  the  Columbian  Order 
(Tammany)  which  was  supposed  to  represent 
Jacobinism  and  P"rench  ideas  generally.  Their 
numbers  were  considerable,  but  they  did  not  belong 
to  fashionable  society.  Their  lecturer,  Elihu 
Palmer,  was  a  scholarly  gentleman  of  the  highest 
character.  A  native  of  Canterbury,  Connecticut, 
(born  I  754,)  he  had  graduated  at  Dartmouth.  He 
was  married  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Watt  to  a  widow, 
Mary  Powell,  in  New  York  (1803),  at  the  time 
when  he  was  lecturing  in  the  Temple  of  Reason 
(Snow's  Rooms,  Broadway).  This  suggests  that 
he  had  not  broken  with  the  clergy  altogether. 
Somewhat  later  he  lectured  at  the  Union  Hotel, 
William  Street.  He  had  studied  divinity,  and 
turned  against  the  creeds  what  was  taught  him  for 
their  support. 

"  I  have  more  than  once  [says  Dr.  Francis]  listened  to 
Palmer  ;  none  could  be  weary  within  the  sound  of  his  voice  ; 
his  diction  was  classical  ;  and  much  of  his  natural  theology  at- 
tractive by  variety  of  illustration.  But  admiration  of  him  sank 
into  despondency  at  his  assumption,  and  his  sarcastic  assaults 
on  things  most  holy.  His  boldest  phillippic  was  his  discourse 
on  the  title-page  of  the  Bible,  in  which,  with  the  double  shield 
of  jacobinism  and  infidelity,  he  warned  rising  America  against 
confidence  in  a  book  authorised  by  the  monarchy  of  England. 
Palmer  delivered  his  sermons  in  the  Union  Hotel  in  William 
Street." 


3^4 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Dr.  Francis  does  not  appear  to  have  known  Paine 
personally,  but  had  seen  him.  Palmer's  chief  friends 
in  New  York  were,  he  says,  John  Fellows  ;  Rose, 
an  unfortunate  lawyer ;  Taylor,  a  philanthropist  ; 
and  Charles  Christian.  Of  Rev.  John  Foster,  an- 
other rationalist  lecturer.  Dr.  Francis  says  he  had 
a  noble  presence  and  great  eloquence.  Foster's 
exordium  was  an  invocation  to  the  goddess  of 
Liberty.  He  and  Palmer  called  each  other 
Brother.    No  doubt  Paine  completed  the  Triad. 

Col.  John  Fellows,  always  the  devoted  friend  of 
Paine,  was  an  auctioneer,  but  in  later  life  was  a 
constable  in  the  city  courts.  He  has  left  three  vol- 
umes which  show  considerable  literary  ability,  and 
industrious  research  ;  but  these  were  unfortunately 
bestowed  on  such  extinct  subjects  as  Freemasonry, 
the  secret  of  Junius,  and  controversies  concerning 
General  Putnam.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that 
Colonel  Fellows  should  not  have  left  a  volume 
concerning  Paine,  with  whom  he  was  in  especial 
intimacy,  during  his  last  years. 

Other  friends  of  Paine  were  Thomas  Addis 
Emmet,  Walter  Morton,  a  lawyer,  and  Judge 
Hertell,  a  man  of  wealth,  and  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  State  Assembly.  Fulton  also  was 
much  in  New  York,  and  often  called  on  Paine. 
Paine  was  induced  to  board  at  the  house  of  Wil- 
liam Carver  (36  Cedar  Street),  which  proved  a 
grievous  mistake.  Carver  had  introduced  himself 
to  Paine,  saying  that  he  remembered  him  when  he 
was  an  exciseman  at  Lewes,  England,  he  (Carver) 
being  a  young  farrier  there.  He  made  loud  pro- 
fessions of  deism,  and  of  devotion  to  Paine.  The 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


farrier  of  Lewes  had  become  a  veterinary  prac- 
titioner and  shopkeeper  in  New  York,  Paine  sup- 
posed that  he  would  be  cared  for  in  the  house  of 
this  active  rationaHst,  but  the  man  and  his  family 
were  illiterate  and  vulgar.  His  sojourn  at  Carver's 
probably  shortened  Paine's  life.  Carver,  to  antici- 
pate the  narrative  a  little,  turned  out  to  be  a  bad- 
hearted  man  and  a  traitor. 

Paine  had  accumulated  a  mass  of  fragmentary 
writings  on  religious  subjects,  and  had  begun  pub- 
lishing them  in  a  journal  started  in  1804  by  Elihu 
Palmer, —  The  Prospect;  or  View  of  the  Moral 
World.  This  succeeded  the  paper  called  The 
Temple  of  Reason.  One  of  Paine's  objects  was  to 
help  the  new  journal,  which  attracted  a  good  deal 
of  attention.  His  first  communication  (February  18, 
1804),  was  on  a  sermon  by  Robert  Hall,  on  "  Mod- 
ern Infidelity,"  sent  him  by  a  gentleman  in  New 
York.  The  following  are  some  of  its  trenchant 
paragraphs  : 

"  Is  it  a  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  the  sins  of  the  world, 
and  how  is  it  proved  ?  If  a  God  he  could  not  die,  and  as  a 
man  he  could  not  redeem  :  how  then  is  this  redemption  proved 
to  be  fact  ?  It  is  said  that  Adam  eat  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  com- 
monly called  an  apple,  and  thereby  subjected  himself  and  all 
his  posterity  forever  to  eternal  damnation.  This  is  worse  than 
visiting  the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  unto  the  third 
and  fourth  generations.  But  how  was  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  affect  or  alter  the  case  ?  Did  God  thirst  for  blood  ? 
If  so,  would  it  not  have  been  better  to  have  crucified  Adam 
upon  the  forbidden  tree,  and  made  a  new  man  ?  " 

"  Why  do  not  the  Christians,  to  be  consistent,  make  Saints  of 
Judas  and  Pontius  Pilate,  for  they  were  the  persons  who  accom- 
plished the  act  of  salvation.  The  merit  of  a  sacrifice,  if  there  can 


366 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1805 


be  any  merit  in  it,  was  never  in  the  thing  sacrificed,  but  in  the 
persons  offering  up  the  sacrifice — and  therefore  Judas  and  Pilate 
ought  to  stand  first  in  the  calendar  of  Saints." 

Other  contributions  to  the  Prospect  were  :  "  Of 
the  word  ReHgion  ";  "Cain  and  Abel  ";  The  Tower 
of  Babel";  "  Of  the  religion  of  Deism  compared 
with  the  Christian  Religion";  "Of  the  Sabbath 
Day  in  Connecticut";  "  Of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments"; "Hints  towards. forming  a  Society  for 
inquiring  into  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  ancient 
history,  so  far  as  history  is  connected  with  sys- 
tems of  religion  ancient  and  modern ";  "  To  the 
members  of  the  Society  styling  itself  the  Mission- 
ary Society";  "On  Deism,  and  the  writings  of 
Thomas  Paine";  "Of  the  Books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment." There  were  several  communications  with- 
out any  heading.  Passages  and  sentences  from 
these  little  essays  have  long  been  a  familiar  cur- 
rency among  freethinkers. 

"We  admire  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients,  yet  they  had  no 
bibles,  nor  books,  called  revelation.  They  cultivated  the  reason 
that  God  gave  them,  studied  him  in  his  works,  and  rose  to  emi- 
nence." 

"  The  Cain  and  Abel  of  Genesis  appear  to  be  no  other  than 
the  ancient  Egyptian  story  of  Typhon  and  Osiris,  the  darkness 
and  the  light,  which  answered  very  well  as  allegory  without 
being  believed  as  fact." 

"  Those  who  most  believe  the  Bible  are  those  who  know  least 
about  it." 

"  Another  observation  upon  the  story  of  Babel  is.  the  incon- 
sistence of  it  with  respect  to  the  opinion  that  the  bible  is  the 
word  of  God  given  for  the  information  of  mankind  ;  for  nothing 
could  so  effectually  prevent  such  a  word  being  known  by  man- 
kind as  confounding  their  language." 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


"  God  has  not  given  us  reason  for  the  purpose  of  confound- 
ing us." 

"  Jesus  never  speaks  of  Adam,  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  nor 
of  what  is  called  the  fall  of  man." 

"  Is  not  the  Bible  warfare  the  same  kind  of  warfare  as  the 
Indians  themselves  carry  on  ?  "  [On  the  })resentation  of  a 
Bible  to  some  Osage  chiefs  in  New  York.] 

"  The  remark  of  the  Emperor  Julian  is  worth  observing. 
*  If,'  said  he,  '  there  ever  had  been  or  could  be  a  Tree  of 
Knowledge,  instead  of  God  forbidding  man  to  eat  thereof,  it 
would  be  that  of  which  he  would  order  him  to  eat  the  most.'  " 

"  Do  Christians  not  see  that  their  own  religion  is  founded  on 
a  human  sacrifice  ?  Many  thousands  of  human  sacrifices  have 
since  been  offered  on  the  altar  of  the  Christian  Religion." 

"  For  several  centuries  past  the  dispute  has  been  about  doc- 
trines.   It  is  now  about  fact." 

"  The  Bible  has  been  received  by  Protestants  on  the  author- 
ity of  the  Church  of  Rome." 

"  The  same  degree  of  hearsay  evidence,  and  that  at  third  and 
fourth  hand,  would  not,  in  a  court  of  justice,  give  a  man  title 
to  a  cottage,  and  yet  the  priests  of  this  profession  presumptu- 
ously promise  their  deluded  followers  the  kingdom  of  Heaven." 

"  Nobody  fears  for  the  safety  of  a  mountain,  but  a  hillock  of 
sand  may  be  washed  away.  Blow  then,  O  ye  priests,  "  the 
Trumpet  in  Zion,"  for  the  Hillock  is  in  danger." 

The  force  of  Paine's  negations  was  not  broken 
by  any  weakness  for  speculations  of  his  own.  He 
constructed  no  system  to  invite  the  missiles  of 
antagonists.  It  is,  indeed,  impossible  to  deny  with- 
out affirming  ;  denial  that  two  and  two  make  five 
affirms  that  they  make  four.  The  basis  of  Paine's 
denials  being  the  divine  wisdom  and  benevolence; 
there  was  in  his  use  of  such  expressions  an  implica- 
tion of  limitation  in  the  divine  nature.  Wisdom 
implies  the  necessity  of  dealing  with  difficulties. 


368 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


and  benevolence  the  effort  to  make  all  sentient 
creatures  happy.  Neither  quality  is  predicable  of 
an  omniscient  and  omnipotent  being,  for  whom 
there  could  be  no  difficulties  or  evils  to  overcome. 
Paine  did  not  confuse  the  world  with  his  doubts 
or  with  his  mere  opinions.  He  stuck  to  his  cer- 
tainties, that  the  scriptural  deity  was  not  the  true 
one,  nor  the  dogmas  called  Christian  reasonable. 
But  he  felt  some  of  the  moral  difficulties  surround- 
ing theism,  and  these  were  indicated  in  his  reply 
to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff. 

"  The  Book  of  Job  belongs  either  to  the  ancient  Persians, 
the  Chaldeans,  or  the  Egyptians  ;  because  the  structure  of  it  is 
consistent  with  the  dogma  they  held,  that  of  a  good  and  evil 
spirit,  called  in  Job  God  and  Satan,  existing  as  distinct  and 
separate  beings,  and  it  is  not  consistent  with  any  dogma  of  the 
Jews.  .  .  .  The  God  of  the  Jews  was  the  God  of  everything. 
All  good  and  evil  came  from  him.  According  to  Exodus  it  was 
God,  and  not  the  Devil,  that  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Book  of  Samuel  it  was  an  evil  spirit  from  God 
that  troubled  Saul.  And  Ezekiel  makes  God  say,  in  speaking 
of  the  Jews,  *  I  gave  them  statutes  that  were  not  good,  and 
judgments  by  which  they  should  not  live.'  ...  As  to  the  pre- 
cepts, principles,  and  maxims  in  the  Book  of  Job,  they  show 
that  the  people  abusively  called  the  heathen,  in  the  books  of 
the  Jews,  had  the  most  sublime  ideas  of  the  Creator,  and  the 
most  exalted  devotional  morality.  It  was  the  Jews  who  dis- 
honored God.    It  was  the  Gentiles  who  glorified  him." 

Several  passages  in  Paine's  works  show  that  he 
did  not  believe  in  a  personal  devil ;  just  what  he 
did  believe  was  no  doubt  written  in  a  part  of  his 
reply  to  the  Bishop,  which,  unfortunately,  he  did 
not  live  to  carry  through  the  press.  In  the  part 
that  we  have  he  expresses  the  opinion  that  the 


A  NEW  YORK'  PROMETHEUS. 


Serpent  of  Genesis  is  an  allegory  of  winter,  neces- 
sitating the  "  coats  of  skins  "  to  keep  Adam  and 
Eve  warm,  and  adds  :  "  Of  these  things  I  shall 
speak  fully  when  I  come  in  another  part  to  speak 
of  the  ancient  religion  of  the  Persians,  and  com- 
pare it  with  the  modern  religion  of  the  New 
Testament."  But  this  part  was  never  published. 
The  part  published  was  transcribed  by  Paine  and 
given,  not  long  before  his  death,  to  the  widow  of 
Elihu  Palmer,  who  published  it  in  the  Theophilan- 
thropist  in  18 10.  Paine  had  kept  the  other  part, 
no  doubt  for  revision,  and  it  passed  with  his  effects 
into  the  hands  of  Madame  Bonneville,  who  eventu- 
ally became  a  devotee.  She  either  suppressed  it 
or  sold  it  to  some  one  who  destroyed  it.  We  can 
therefore  only  infer  from  the  above  extract  the 
author's  belief  on  this  momentous  point.  It  seems 
clear  that  he  did  not  attribute  any  evil  to  the  divine 
Being.  In  the  last  article  Paine  published  he 
rebukes  the  "  Predestinarians  "  for  dwelling  mainly 
on  God's  "  physical  attribute  "  of  power.  "  The 
Deists,  in  addition  to  this,  believe  in  his  moral 
attributes,  those  of  justice  and  goodness." 

Among  Paine's  papers  was  found  one  entitled 
"  My  private  thoughts  of  a  Future  State,"  from 
which  his  editors  have  dropped  important  sentences. 

"  I  have  said  in  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason  that  '  I 
hope  for  happiness  after  this  life.'  This  hope  is  comfortable 
to  me,  and  I  presume  not  to  go  beyond  the  comfortable  idea  of 
hope,  with  respect  to  a  future  state.  I  consider  myself  in  the 
hands  of  my  Creator,  and  that  he  will  dispose  of  me  after  this 
life,  consistently  with  his  justice  and  goodness.  I  leave  all 
these  matters  to  him  as  my  Creator  and  friend,  and  I  hold  it  to 

VOL.  II. — 24 


37° 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


be  presumption  in  man  to  make  an  article  of  faith  as  lo  what 
the  Creator  will  do  with  us  hereafter.  I  do  not  believe,  because 
a  man  and  a  woman  make  a  child,  that  it  imposes  on  the  Crea- 
tor the  unavoidable  obligation  of  keeping  the  being  so  made  in 
eternal  existence  hereafter.  It  is  in  his  power  to  do  so,  or  not 
to  do  so,  and  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  decide  which  he  will  do." 
[After  quoting  from  Matthew  25th  the  figure  of  the  sheep  and 
goats  he  continues  :]  "  The  world  cannot  be  thus  divided.  The 
moral  world,  like  the  physical  world,  is  composed  of  numerous 
degrees  of  character,  running  imperceptibly  one  into  the  other, 
in  such  a  manner  that  no  fixed  point  can  be  found  in  either. 
That  point  is  nowhere,  or  is  everywhere.  The  whole  world 
might  be  divided  into  two  parts  numerically,  but  not  as  to 
moral  character  ;  and  therefore  the  metaphor  of  dividing  them, 
as  sheep  and  goats  can  be  divided,  whose  difference  is  marked 
by  their  external  figure,  is  absurd.  All  sheep  are  still  sheep  ; 
all  goats  are  still  goats  ;  it  is  their  physical  nature  to  be  so. 
But  one  part  of  the  world  are  not  all  good  alike,  nor  the  other 
part  all  wicked  alike.  There  are  some  exceedingly  good,  others 
exceedingly  wicked.  There  is  another  description  of  men  who 
cannot  be  ranked  with  either  the  one  or  the  other — they  belong 
neither  to  the  sheep  nor  the  goats.  And  there  is  still  another 
description  of  them  who  are  so  very  insignificant,  both  in  char- 
acter and  conduct,  as  not  to  be  worth  the  trouble  of  damning 
or  saving,  or  of  raising  from  the  dead.  My  own  opinion  is, 
that  those  whose  lives  have  been  spent  in  doing  good,  and  en- 
deavouring to  make  their  fellow  mortals  happy,  for  this  is  the 
only  way  in  which  we  can  serve  God,  will  be  happy  hereafter  ; 
and  that  the  very  wicked  will  meet  with  some  punishment. 
But  those  who  are  neither  good  nor  bad,  or  are  too  insignificant 
for  notice,  will  be  dropt  entirely.  This  is  my  opinion.  It  is 
consistent  with  my  idea  of  God's  justice,  and  with  the  reason 
that  God  has  given  me,  and  I  gratefully  know  that  he  has  given 
me  a  large  share  of  that  divine  gift." 

The  closing  tribute  to  his  own  reason,  written  in 
privacy,  was,  perhaps  pardonably,  suppressed  by 
the  modern  editor,  and  also  the  reference  to  the 
insignificant  who  "will  be  dropt  entirely."  This 


i8o6]  A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS.  37 1 

sentiment  is  not  indeed  democratic,  but  it  is  signifi- 
cant. It  seems  plain  that  Paine's  conception  of 
the  universe  was  duaHstic.  Though  he  discards 
the  notion  of  a  devil,  I  do  not  find  that  he  ever 
ridicules  it.  No  doubt  he  would,  were  he  now  liv- 
ing, incline  to  a  division  of  nature  into  organic 
and  inorganic,  and  find  his  deity,  as  Zoroaster  did, 
in  the  living  as  distinguished  from,  and  sometimes 
in  antagonism  with,  the  "not-living."  In  this  be- 
lief he  would  now  find  himself  in  harmony  with 
some  of  the  ablest  modern  philosophers.^ 

The  opening  year  1806  found  Paine  in  New  Ro- 
chelle.  By  insufficient  nourishment  in  Carver's 
house  his  health  was  impaired.  His  means  were 
getting  low,  insomuch  that  to  support  the  Bonne- 
villes  he  had  to  sell  the  Bordentown  house  and 
property.'  Elihu  Palmer  had  gone  off  to  Philadel- 
phia for  a  time ;  he  died  there  of  yellow  fever  in 
1806.  The  few  intelligent  people  whom  Paine 
knew  were  much  occupied,  and  he  was  almost 
without  congenial  society.  His  hint  to  Jefferson 
of  his  impending  poverty,  and  his  reminder  that 
Virginia  had  not  yet  given  him  the  honorarium 
he  and  Madison  approved,  had  brought  no  result. 
With  all  this,  and  the  loss  of  early  friendships,  and 
the  theological  hornet-nest  he  had  found  in  New 

'  John  Stuart  Mill,  for  instance.  See  also  the  Rev.  Dr.  Abbott's  "  Ker- 
nel and  Husk "  (London),  and  the  great  work  of  Samuel  Laing,  "  A 
Modern  Zoroastrian." 

It  was  bought  for  $300  by  his  friend  John  Oliver,  whose  daughter,  still 
residing  in  the  house,  told  me  that  her  father  to  the  end  of  his  life 
"  thought  everything  of  Paine."  John  Oliver,  in  his  old  age,  visited 
Colonel  IngersoU  in  order  to  testify  against  the  aspersions  on  Paine's 
character  and  habits. 


372 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


[1806 


York,  Paine  began  to  feel  that  his  return  to  America 
was  a  mistake. 

The  air-castle  that  had  allured  him  to  his  be- 
loved land  had,  faded.  His  little  room  with  the 
Bonnevilles  in  Paris,  with  its  chaos  of  papers,  was 
preferable  ;  for  there  at  least  he  could  enjoy  the 
society  of  educated  persons,  free  from  bigotry. 
He  dwelt  a  stranger  in  his  Land  of  Promise. 

So  he  resolved  to  try  and  free  himself  from  his 
depressing  environment.  He  would  escape  to 
Europe  again.  Jefferson  had  offered  him  a  ship 
to  return  in,  perhaps  he  would  now  help  him  to 
get  back.  So  he  writes  (Jan.  30th)  a  letter  to  the 
President,  pointing  out  the  probabilities  of  a  crisis 
in  Europe  which  must  result  in  either  a  descent  on 
England  by  Bonaparte,  or  in  a  treaty.  In  the 
case  that  the  people  of  England  should  be  thus 
liberated  from  tyranny,  he  (Paine)  desired  to  share 
with  his  friends  there  the  task  of  framing  a  repub- 
lic. Should  there  be,  on  the  other  hand,  a  treaty 
of  peace,  it  would  be  of  paramount  interest  to 
American  shipping  that  such  treaty  should  in- 
clude that  maritime  compact,  or  safety  of  the  seas 
for  neutral  ships,  of  which  Paine  had  written  so 
much,  and  which  Jefferson  himself  had  caused  to 
be  printed  in  a  pamphlet.  Both  of  these  were, 
therefore,  Paine's  subjects.  "  I  think,"  he  says, 
"  you  will  find  it  proper,  perhaps  necessary,  to 
send  a  person  to  France  in  the  event  of  either  a 
treaty  or  a  descent,  and  I  make  you  an  offer  of 
my  services  on  that  occasion  to  join  Mr.  Monroe. 
.  .  .  As  I  think  that  the  letters  of  a  friend  to  a 
friend  have  some  claim  to  an  answer,  it  will  be 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


373 


agreeable  to  me  to  receive  an  answer  to  this,  but 
without  any  wish  that  you  should  commit  yourself, 
neither  can  you  be  a  judge  of  what  is  proper  or 
necessary  to  be  done  till  about  the  month  of  April 
or  May." 

This  little  dream  must  also  vanish.  Paine  must 
face  the  fact  that  his  career  is  ended. 

It  is  probable  that  Elihu  Palmer's  visit  to  Phila- 
delphia was  connected  with  some  theistic  move- 
ment in  that  city.  How  it  was  met,  and  what 
annoyances  Paine  had  to  suffer,  are  partly  inti- 
mated in  the  following  letter,  printed  in  the  Phila- 
delphia Commercial  Advertiser,  February  lo,  1806. 

"  To  John  Inskeep,  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia. 

*'  I  saw  in  the  Aurora  of  January  the  30th  a  piece  addressed 
to  you  and  signed  Isaac  Hall.  It  contains  a  statement  of  your 
malevolent  conduct  in  refusing  to  let  him  have  Vine-st.  Wharf 
after  he  had  bid  fifty  dollars  more  rent  for  it  than  another 
person  had  offered,  and  had  been  unanimously  approved  of 
by  the  Commissioners  appointed  by  law  for  that  purpose. 
Among  the  reasons  given  by  you  for  this  refusal,  one  was, 
that  ''Mr  Hall  was  one  of  Paine' s  disciples'  If  those  whom 
you  may  chuse  to  call  my  disciples  follow  my  example  in 
doing  good  to  mankind,  they  will  pass  the  confines  of  this 
world  with  a  happy  mind,  while  the  hope  of  the  hypocrite 
shall  perish  and  delusion  sink  into  despair. 

"  I  do  not  know  who  Mr.  Inskeep  is,  for  I  do  not  remember 
the  name  of  Inskeep  at  Philadelphia  in  '  the  time  that  tried 
mens  souls'  He  must  be  some  mushroom  of  modern  growth 
that  has  started  up  on  the  soil  which  the  generous  services  of 
Thomas  Paine  contributed  to  bless  with  freedom  ;  neither  do 
I  know  what  profession  of  religion  he  is  of,  nor  do  I  care,  for 
if  he  is  a  man  malevolent  and  unjust,  it  signifies  not  to  what 
class  or  sectary  he  may  hypocritically  belong. 

"As  I  set  too  much  value  on  my  time  to  waste  it  on  a  man 
of  so  little  consequence  as  yourself,  I  will  close  this  short 


374  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1806 

address  with  a  declaration  that  puts  hypocrisy  and  malevo- 
lence to  defiance.  Here  it  is  :  My  motive  and  object  in 
all  my  political  works,  beginning  with  Common  Sense, 
the  first  work  I  ever  published,  have  been  to  rescue 
man  from  tyranny  and  false  systems  and  false  principles 
of  government,  and  enable  him  to  be  free,  and  establish 
government  for  himself  ;  and  I  have  borne  my  share  of 
danger  in  Europe  and  in  America  in  every  attempt  I  have 
made  for  this  purpose.  And  my  motive  and  object  in  all  my 
publications  on  religious  subjects,  beginning  with  the  first  part 
of  the  Age  of  Reason,  have  been  to  bring  man  to  a  right  reason 
that  God  has  given  him  ;  to  impress  on  him  the  great  princi- 
ples of  divine  morality,  justice,  mercy,  and  a  benevolent  dis- 
position to  all  men  and  to  all  creatures  ;  and  to  excite  in  him 
a  spirit  of  trust,  confidence  and  consolation  in  his  creator, 
unshackled  by  the  fable  and  fiction  of  books,  by  whatever 
invented  name  they  may  be  called.  I  am  happy  in  the  con- 
tinual contemplation  of  what  I  have  done,  and  I  thank  God 
that  he  gave  me  talents  for  the  purpose  and  fortitude  to  do  it. 
It  will  make  the  continual  consolation  of  my  departing  hours, 
whenever  they  finally  arrive. 

"Thomas  Paine." 

"  '  These  are  the  times  that  try  men's  souls'  Crisis  No.  i, 
written  while  on  the  retreat  with  the  army  from  fort  Lee  to 
the  Delaware  and  published  in  Philadelphia  in  the  dark  days 
of  1776  December  the  19th,  six  days  before  the  taking  of  the 
Hessians  at  Trenton." 

But  the  year  1806  had  a  heavier  blow  yet  to  in- 
flict on  Paine,  and  it  naturally  came,  though  in  a 
roundabout  way,  from  his  old  enemy  Gouverneur 
Morris.  While  at  New  Rochelle,  Paine  offered 
his  vote  at  the  election,  and  it  was  refused,  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  not  an  American  citizen  !  The 
supervisor  declared  that  the  former  American  Min- 
ister, Gouverneur  Morris,  had  refused  to  reclaim 
him  from  a  French  prison  because  he  was  not  an 


A  NEIV  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


375 


American,  and  that  Washington  had  also  refused 
to  reclaim  him.  Gouverneur  Morris  had  just  lost 
his  seat  in  Congress,  and  was  politically  defunct, 
but  his  ghost  thus  rose  on  poor  Paine's  pathway. 
The  supervisor  who  disfranchised  the  author  of 
"Common  Sense"  had  been  a  "Tory"  in  the 
Revolution  ;  the  man  he  disfranchised  was  one  to 
whom  the  President  of  the  United  States  had 
written,  five  years  before  :  "  I  am  in  hopes  you  will 
find  us  returned  generally  to  sentiments  worthy  of 
former  times.  In  these  it  will  be  your  glory  to 
have  steadily  labored,  and  with  as  much  effect  as 
any  man  living."  There  was  not  any  question  of 
Paine's  qualification  as  a  voter  on  other  grounds 
than  the  supervisor  (Elisha  Ward)  raised.  More 
must  presently  be  said  concerning  this  incident. 
Paine  announced  his  intention  of  suing  the  in- 
spectors, but  meanwhile  he  had  to  leave  the  polls 
in  humiliation.  It  was  the  fate  of  this  founder  of 
republics  to  be  a  monument  of  their  ingratitude. 

And  now  Paine's  health  began  to  fail.  An 
intimation  of  this  appears  in  a  letter  to  Andrew  A. 
Dean,  to  whom  his  farm  at  New  Rochelle  was  let, 
dated  from  New  York,  August,  1806.  It  is  in 
reply  to  a  letter  from  Dean  on  a  manuscript  which 
Paine  had  lent  him. ' 

•  "  I  have  read,"  says  Dean,  "with  good  attention  your  manuscript  on 
Dreams,  and  Examination  of  the  Prophecies  in  the  Bible.  I  am  now- 
searching  the  old  prophecies,  and  comparing  the  same  to  those  said  to  be 
quoted  in  the  New  Testament.  I  confess  the  comparison  is  a  matter  worthy 
of  our  serious  attention  ;  I  know  not  the  result  till  I  finish  ;  then,  if  you  be 
living,  I  shall  communicate  the  same  to  you.  I  hope  to  be  with  you  soon." 
Paine  was  now  living  with  Jarvis,  the  artist.  One  evening  he  fell  as  if  by 
apoplexy,  and,  as  he  lay,  his  first  word  was  (to  Jarvis)  :  "  My  corporeal 
functions  have  ceased  ;  my  intellect  is  clear  ;  this  is  a  proof  of  immortality." 


3/6  THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [l8o6 

"  Respected  Friend  :  I  received  your  friendly  letter,  for 
which  I  am  obliged  to  you.  It  is  three  weeks  ago  to  day  (Sun- 
day, Aug.  15,)  that  I  was  struck  with  a  fit  of  an  apoplexy,  that 
deprived  me  of  all  sense  and  motion.  I  had  neither  pulse  nor 
breathing,  and  the  people  about  me  supposed  me  dead.  I  had 
felt  exceedingly  well  that  day,  and  had  just  taken  a  slice  of 
bread  and  butter  for  supper,  and  was  going  to  bed.  The  fit 
took  me  on  the  stairs,  as  suddenly  as  if  I  had  been  shot  through 
the  head  ;  and  I  got  so  very  much  hurt  by  the  fall,  that  I  have 
not  been  able  to  get  in  and  out  of  bed  since  that  day,  otherwise 
than  being  lifted  out  in  a  blanket,  by  two  persons  ;  yet  all  this 
while  my  mental  faculties  have  remained  as  perfect  as  I  ever 
enjoyed  them.  I  consider  the  scene  I  have  passed  through  as 
an  experiment  on  dying,  and  I  find  death  has  no  terrors  for 
me.  As  to  the  people  called  Christians,  they  have  no  evidence 
that  their  religion  is  true.  There  is  no  more  proof  that  the 
Bible  is  the  word  of  God,  than  that  the  Koran  of  Mahomet  is 
the  word  of  God.  It  is  education  makes  all  the  difference. 
Man,  before  he  begins  to  think  for  himself,  is  as  much  the  child 
of  habit  in  Creeds  as  he  is  in  ploughing  and  sowing.  Yet 
creeds,  like  opinions,  prove  nothing.  Where  is  the  evidence 
that  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ  is  the  begotten  Son  of  God  ? 
The  case  admits  not  of  evidence  either  to  our  senses  or  our 
mental  faculties  :  neither  has  God  given  to  man  any  talent  by 
which  such  a  thing  is  comprehensible.  It  cannot  therefore  be 
an  object  for  faith  to  act  upon,  for  faith  is  nothing  more  than 
an  assent  the  mind  gives  to  something  it  sees  cause  to  believe 
is  fact.  But  priests,  preachers,  and  fanatics,  put  imagination 
in  the  place  of  faith,  and  it  is  the  nature  of  the  imagination 
to  believe  without  evidence.  If  Joseph  the  carpenter  dreamed 
(as  the  book  of  Matthew,  chapter  1st,  says  he  did,)  that  his 
betrothed  wife,  Mary,  was  with  child  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
that  an  angel  told  him  so,  I  am  not  obliged  to  put  faith  in  his 
dream  ;  nor  do  I  put  any,  for  I  put  no  faith  in  my  own  dreams, 
and  I  should  be  weak  and  foolish  indeed  to  put  faith  in  the 
dreams  of  others. — The  Christian  religion  is  derogatory  to  the 
Creator  in  all  its  articles.  It  puts  the  Creator  in  an  inferior 
point  of  view,  and  places  the  Christian  Devil  above  him.  It 
is  he,  according  to  the  absurd  story  in  Genesis,  that  outwits  the 


l8o6]  A  NEW  YORIC  PROMETHEUS.  377 

Creator,  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  steals  from  him  his  favor- 
ite creature,  man  ;  and,  at  last,  obliges  him  to  beget  a  son,  and 
put  that  son  to  death,  to  get  man  back  again.  And  this  the 
priests  of  the  Christian  religion,  call  redemption. 

"  Christian  authors  exclaim  against  the  practice  of  offering 
human  sacrifices,  which,  they  say,  is  done  in  some  countries  ; 
and  those  authors  make  those  exclamations  without  ever  reflect- 
ing that  their  own  doctiine  of  salvation  is  founded  on  a  human 
sacrifice.  They  are  saved,  they  say,  by  the  blood  of  Christ. 
The  Christian  religion  begins  with  a  dream  and  ends  with  a 
murder. 

"  As  I  am  well  enough  to  sit  up  some  hours  in  the  day, 
though  not  well  enough  to  get  up  without  help,  I  employ  my- 
self as  I  have  always  done,  in  endeavoring  to  bring  man  to  the 
right  use  of  the  reason  that  God  has  given  him,  and  to  direct 
his  mind  immediately  to  his  Creator,  and  not  to  fanciful  sec- 
ondary beings  called  mediators,  as  if  God  was  superannuated 
or  ferocious. 

"  As  to  the  book  called  the  Bible,  it  is  blasphemy  to  call  it 
the  word  of  God.  It  is  a  book  of  lies  and  contradictions,  and 
a  history  of  bad  times  and  bad  men.  There  are  but  a  few  good 
characters  in  the  whole  book.  The  fable  of  Christ  and  his 
twelve  apostles,  which  is  a  parody  on  the  sun  and  the  twelve 
signs  of  the  Zodiac,  copied  from  the  ancient  religions  of  the 
eastern  world,  is  the  least  hurtful  part.  Every  thing  told  of 
Christ  has  reference  to  the  sun.  His  reported  resurrection  is 
at  sunrise,  and  that  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  ;  that  is,  on 
the  day  anciently  dedicated  to  the  sun,  and  from  thence  called 
Sunday  ;  in  latin  Dies  Solis,  the  day  of  the  sun  ;  as  the  next 
day,  Monday,  is  Moon  day.  But  there  is  no  room  in  a  letter 
to  explain  these  things.  While  man  keeps  to  the  belief  of  one 
God,  his  reason  unites  with  his  creed.  He  is  not  shocked  with 
contradictions  and  horrid  stories.  His  bible  is  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  He  beholds  his  Creator  in  all  his  works,  and 
every  thing  he  beholds  inspires  him  with  reverence  and  grati- 
tude. From  the  goodness  of  God  to  all,  he  learns  his  duty  to 
his  fellow-man,  and  stands  self -reproved  when  he  transgresses 
it.  Such  a  man  is  no  persecutor.  But  when  he  multiplies  his 
creed  with  imaginary  things,  of  which  he  can  have  neither  evi- 


378 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


dence  nor  conception,  such  as  the  tale  of  the  garden  of  Eden, 
the  talking  serpent,  the  fall  of  man,  the  dreams  of  Joseph  the 
carpenter,  the  pretended  resurrection  and  ascension,  of  which 
there  is  even  no  historical  relation,  for  no  historian  of  those 
times  mentions  such' a  thing,  he  gets  into  the  pathless  region  of 
confusion,  and  turns  either  frantic  or  hypocrite.  He  forces  his 
mind,  and  pretends  to  believe  what  he  does  not  believe.  This 
is  in  general  the  case  with  the  Methodists.  Their  religion  is 
all  creed  and  no  morals. 

"  I  have  now  my  friend  given  you  a  fac-simile  of  my  mind  on 
the  subject  of  religion  and  creeds,  and  my  wish  is,  that  you 
may  make  this  letter  as  publicly  known  as  you  find  opportuni- 
ties of  doing.    Yours  in  friendship." 

The  "  Essay  on  Dream "  was  written  early  in 
1806  and  printed  in  May,  1807.  It  was  the  last 
work  of  importance  written  by  Paine.  In  the  same 
pamphlet  was  included  a  part  of  his  reply  to  the 
Bishop  of  Llandaff,  which  was  written  in  France  ; 
"  An  Examination  of  the  Passages  in  the  New 
Testament,  quoted  from  the  Old,  and  called  Proph^ 
ecies  of  the  Coming  of  Jesus  Christ."  The  Ex- 
amination is  widely  known  and  is  among  Paine's 
characteristic  works, — a  continuation  of  the  "  Age 
of  Reason."  The  "Essay  on  Dream"  is  a  fine 
specimen  of  the  author's  literary  art.  Dream  is  the 
imagination  awake  while  the  judgment  is  asleep. 
"  Every  person  is  mad  once  in  twenty-four  hours  ; 
for  were  he  to  act  in  the  day  as  he  dreams  in  the 
night,  he  would  be  confined  for  a  lunatic."  Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne  thought  spiritualism  "  a  sort  of 
dreaming  awake."  Paine  explained  in  the  same 
way  some  of  the  stories  on  which  popular  religion 
is  founded.  The  incarnation  itself  rests  on  what 
an  angel  told  Joseph  in  a  dream,  and  others  are  re 


A  NEW  YOU  A'  PROMETHEUS. 


179 


ferred  to.  "This  story  of  dreams  has  thrown 
Europe  into  a  dream  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years.  All  the  efforts  that  nature,  reason,  and  con- 
science have  made  to  awaken  man  from  it  have 
been  ascribed  by  priestcraft  and  superstition  to  the 
workings  of  the  devil,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
American  revolution,  which  by  establishing  the 
universal  right  of  conscience,  first  opened  the  way 
to  free  discussion,  and  for  the  French  revolution 
which  followed,  this  religrion  of  dreams  had  con- 
tinned  to  be  preached,  and  that  after  it  had  ceased 
to  be  believed." 

But  Paine  was  to  be  reminded  that  the  revolu- 
tion had  not  made  conscience  free  enough  in  Ameri- 
ca to  challenge  waking  dreams  without  penalties. 
The  following  account  of  his  disfranchisement  at 
New  Rochelle,  was  written  from  Broome  St.,  New 
York,  May  4,  1807,  to  Vice-President  Clinton. 

"  Respected  Friend, — Elisha  Ward  and  three  or  four  other 
Tories  who  lived  within  the  british  lines  in  the  revolutionary- 
war,  got  in  to  be  inspectors  of  the  election  last  year  at  New 
Rochelle.  Ward  was  supervisor.  These  men  refused  my  vote 
at  the  election,  saying  to  me:  '  You  are  not  an  American  ;  our 
minister  at  Paris,  Gouverneur  Morris,  would  not  reclaim  you 
when  you  were  emprisoned  in  the  Luxembourg  prison  at  Paris, 
and  General  Washington  refused  to  do  it.'  Upon  my  telling 
him  that  the  two  cases  he  stated  were  falsehoods,  and  that  if  he 
did  me  injustice  I  would  prosecute  him,  he  got  up,  and  calling 
for  a  constable,  said  to  me,  '  I  will  commit  you  to  prison.'  He 
chose,  however,  to  sit  down  and  go  no  farther  with  it. 

"  I  have  written  to  Mr.  Madison  for  an  attested  copy  of  Mr. 
Monro's  letter  to  the  then  Secretary  of  State  Randolph,  in 
which  Mr.  Monro  gives  the  government  an  account  of  his  re- 
claiming me  and  my  liberation  in  consequence  of  it  ;  and  also 
for  an  attested  copy  of  Mr.  Randolph's  answer,  in  which  he 


38o 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE.  [1807 


says  :  '  The  President  approves  what  you  have  done  in  the  case 
of  Mr.  Paine.'  The  matter  I  believe  is,  that,  as  I  had  not  been 
guillotined,  Washington  thought  best  to  say  what  he  did.  As  to 
Gouverneur  Morris,  the  case  is  that  he  did  reclaim  me  ;  but 
his  reclamation  did  me  no  good,  and  the  probability  is,  he  did 
not  intend  it  should.  Joel  Barlow  and  other  Americans  in 
Paris  had  been  in  a  body  to  reclaim  me,  but  their  application, 
being  unofficial,  was  not  regarded.  I  then  applied  to  Morris. 
I  shall  subpoena  Morris,  and  if  I  get  attested  copies  from  the 
Secretary  of  State's  office  it  will  prove  the  lie  on  the  inspectors. 

"  As  it  is  a  new  generation  that  has  risen  up  since  the  dec- 
laration of  independence,  they  know  nothing  of  what  the 
political  state  of  the  country  was  at  the  time  the  pamphlet 
'  Common  Sense  '  appeared  ;  and  besides  this  there  are  but  few 
of  the  old  standers  left,  and  none  that  I  know  of  in  this  city. 

"  It  may  be  proper  at  the  trial  to  bring  the  mind  of  the  court 
and  the  jury  back  to  the  times  I  am  speaking  of,  and  if  you 
see  no  objection  in  your  way,  I  wish  you  would  write  a  letter 
to  some  person,  stating,  from  your  own  knowledge,  what  the 
condition  of  those  times  were,  and  the  effect  which  the  work 
'  Common  Sense,'  and  the  several  members  of  the  '  Crisis  '  had 
upon  the  country.  It  would,  I  think,  be  best  that  the  letter 
should  begin  directly  on  the  subject  in  this  manner  :  Being 
informed  that  Thomas  Paine  has  been  denied  his  rights  of 
citizenship  by  certain  persons  acting  as  inspectors  at  an  elec- 
tion at  New  Rochelle,  &c. 

"  I  have  put  the  prosecution  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Riker^ 
district  attorney,  who  can  make  use  of  the  letter  in  his  address 
to  the  Court  and  Jury.  Your  handwriting  can  be  sworn  to  by 
persons  here,  if  necessary.  Had  you  been  on  the  spot  I  should 
have  subpoenaed  you,  unless  it  had  been  too  inconvenient  to 
you  to  have  attended.    Yours  in  friendship." 

To  this  Clinton  replied  from  Washington,  12th 
May,  1807: 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  had  the  pleasure  to  receive  your  letter  of 
the  4th  instant,  yesterday  ;  agreeably  to  your  request  I  have 
this  day  written  a  letter  to  Richard  Riker,  Esquire,  which  he 


1807]  A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


will  show  you.  I  doubt  much,  however,  whether  the  Court  will 
admit  it  to  be  read  as  evidence. 

"  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  a  former  letter.  I  can  make  no 
other  apology  for  not  acknowledging  it  before  than  inability 
to  give  you  such  an  answer  as  I  could  wish.  I  constantly  keep 
the  subject  in  mind,  and  should  any  favorable  change  take  place 
in  the  sentiments  of  the  Legislature,  I  will  apprize  you  of  it. 

"  I  am,  with  great  esteem,  your  sincere  friend." 

In  the  letter  to  Madison  Paine  tells  the  same 
story.  At  the  end  he  says  that  Morris'  reclama- 
tion was  not  out  of  any  good  will  to  him,  "  I 
know  not  what  he  wrote  to  the  french  minister ; 
■whatever  it  was  he  concealed  it  from  me."  He 
also  says  Morris  could  hardly  keep  himself  out  of 
prison. ' 

A  letter  was  also  written  to  Joel  Barlow,  at 
Washington,  dated  Broome  Street,  New  York, 
May  4th.    He  says  in  this  : 

"  I  have  prosecuted  the  Board  of  Inspectors  for  disfranchising 
me.  You  and  other  Americans  in  Paris  went  in  a  body  to  the 
Convention  to  reclaim  me,  and  I  want  a  certificate  from  you, 
properly  attested,  of  this  fact.  If  you  consult  with  Gov. 
Clinton  he  will  in  friendship  inform  you  who  to  address  it  to. 

"  Having  now  done  with  business  I  come  to  meums  and 
tuums.  What  are  you  about  ?  You  sometimes  hear  of  me 
but  I  never  hear  of  you.  It  seems  as  if  I  had  got  to  be  master 
of  the  feds  and  the  priests.  The  former  do  not  attack  my 
political  publications  ;  they  rather  try  to  keep  them  out  of  sight 
by  silence.  And  as  to  the  priests,  they  act  as  if  they  would 
say,  let  us  alone  and  we  will  let  you  alone.  My  Examination  of 
the  passages  called  prophecies  is  printed,  and  will  be  published 
next  week.  I  have  prepared  it  with  the  Essay  on  Dream.  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  priests  will  attack  it,  for  it  is  not  a 
book  of  opinions  but  of  facts.  Had  the  Christian  Religion 
done  any  good  in  the  world  I  would  not  have  exposed  it,  how- 

'  The  letter  is  in  Mr.  Frederick  McGuire's  collection  of  Madison  papers. 


382 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


ever  fabulous  I  might  believe  it  to  be.  But  the  delusive  idea 
of  having  a  friend  at  court  whom  they  call  a  redeemer,  who 
pays  all  their  scores,  is  an  encouragement  to  wickedness. 

"  What  is  Fulton  about  ?  Is  he  taming  a  whale  to  draw  his 
submarine  boat  ?  I  wish  you  would  desire  Mr.  Smith  to  send 
me  his  country  National  Intelligencer.  It  is  printed  twice  a 
week  without  advertisement.  I  am  somewhat  at  a  loss  for 
want  of  authentic  intelligence.    Yours  in  friendship." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Paine  was  still  in  ignorance 
of  the  conspiracy  which  had  thrown  him  in  prison, 
nor  did  he  suspect  that  Washington  had  been 
deceived  by  Gouverneur  Morris,  and  that  his  pri- 
vate letter  to  Washington  might  have  been  sup- 
pressed by  Pickering.^    It  will  be  seen,  by  Madame 

'  It  has  been  already  surmised  (ii.,  p.  174),  that  Washington's  Secre- 
tary of  State  might  have  kept  Paine's  letter  from  the  President,  and  thus 
prevented  an  answer,  which  might  have  led  to  an  explanation.  I  had  not 
then  observed  a  reference  to  that  letter  by  Madison,  in  writing  to  Monroe 
(April  7,  1796),  which  proves  that  Paine's  communication  to  Washington 
had  been  read  by  Pickering.  Monroe  was  anxious  lest  some  attack  on 
the  President  should  be  written  by  Paine  while  under  his  roof, — an  impro- 
priety avoided  by  Paine  as  we  have  seen, — and  had  written  to  Madison  on 
the  subject.  Madison  answers:  "  I  have  given  the  explanation  you  desired 
to  F.  A.  M[uhlenberg],  who  has  not  received  any  letter  as  yet,  and  has  prom- 
ised to  pay  due  regard  to  your  request.  It  is  proper  you  should  know  that 
Thomas  Paine  wrote  some  time  ago  a  severe  letter  to  the  President  which 
Pickering  mentioned  to  me  in  harsh  terms  when  I  delivered  a  note  from 
Thomas  Paine  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  inclosed  by  T.  P.  in  a  letter  to 
me.  Nothing  passed,  however,  that  betrayed  the  least  association  of  your 
patronage  or  attention  to  Thomas  Paine  with  the  circumstance  ;  nor  am  I 
apprehensive  that  any  real  suspicion  can  exist  of  your  countenancing  or  even 
knowing  the  steps  taken  by  T.  P.  under  the  influence  of  his  personal  feel- 
ings or  political  principles.  At  the  same  time  the  caution  you  observe  is 
by  no  means  to  be  disapproved.  Be  so  good  as  to  let  T.  P.  know  that  I 
have  received  his  letter  and  handed  his  note  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  which 
requested  copies  of  such  letters  as  might  have  been  written  hence  in  his  behalf, 
rhe  note  did  not  require  any  answer  either  to  me  or  through  me,  and  I  have 
heard  nothing  of  it  since  I  handed  it  to  Pickering."  At  this  time  the  Sec- 
retary of  State's  office  contained  the  President's  official  recognition  of  Paine's 
citizenship  ;  but  this  application  for  the  papers  relating  to  his  imprisonment 
by  a  foreign  power  received  no  reply,  though  it  was  evidently  couched  in 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


383 


Bonneville's  and  Jarvis'  statements  elsewhere,  that 
Paine  lost  his  case  against  Elisha  Ward,  on  what 
ground  it  is  difficult  to  imagine.  The  records  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  at  Albany,  and  the  Clerk's  office 
at  White  Plains,  have  been  vainly  searched  for  any 
trace  of  this  trial.  Mr.  John  H.  Riker,  son  of  Paine's 
counsel,  has  examined  the  remaining  papers  of 
Richard  Riker  (many  were  accidentally  destroyed) 
without  finding  anything  related  to  the  matter.  It 
is  so  terrible  to  think  that  with  Jefferson,  Clinton, 
and  Madison  at  the  head  of  the  government, 
and  the  facts  so  clear,  the  federalist  Elisha  Ward 
could  vindicate  his  insult  to  Thomas  Paine,  that  it 
may  be  hoped  the  publication  of  these  facts  will 
bring  others  to  light  that  may  put  a  better  face  on 
the  matter.'  Madame  Bonneville  may  have  mis- 
respectful  terms  ;  as  the  letter  was  open  for  the  eye  of  Madison,  who  would  not 
have  conveyed  it  otherwise.  It  is  impossible  that  Washington  could  have 
sanctioned  such  an  outrage  on  one  he  had  recognized  as  an  American  citizen. 
There  is  thus  reason  to  believe  that  Timothy  Pickering,  as  he  had  kept 
back  a  letter  in  the  case  of  Randolph,  intercepted  that  of  Paine  to  Washing- 
ton (Sept.  20,1795),  whose  silence  brought  on  him  the  public  letter. 

'  Gilbert  Vale  relates  an  anecdote  which  suggests  that  a  reaction  may  have 
occurred  in  Elisha  Ward's  family  :  "At  the  time  of  Mr.  Paine's  residence 
at  his  farm,  Mr.  Ward,  now  a  coffee-roaster  in  Gold  Street,  New  York,  and 
an  assistant  alderman,  was  then  a  little  boy  and  residing  at  New  Rochelle. 
He  remembers  the  impressions  his  mother  and  some  religious  people  made 
on  him  by  speaking  of  Tom  Paine,  so  that  he  concluded  that  Tot?t  Paine 
must  be  a  very  bad  and  brutal  man.  Some  of  his  elder  companions  pro- 
posed going  into  Mr.  Paine's  orchard  to  obtain  some  fruit,  and  he,  out  of 
fear,  kept  at  a  distance  behind,  till  he  beheld,  with  surprise,  Mr.  Paine 
come  out  and  assist  the  boys  in  getting  apples,  patting  one  on  the  head  and 
caressing  another,  and  directing  them  where  to  get  the  best.  He  then 
advanced  and  received  his  share  of  encouragement,  and  the  impression  this 
kindness  made  on  him  determined  him  at  a  very  early  period  to  examine  his 
writings.  His  mother  at  first  took  the  books  from  him,  but  at  a  later  period 
restored  them  to  him,  observing  that  he  was  then  of  an  age  to  judge  for 
himself  ;  perhaps  she  had  herself  been  gradually  undeceived,  both  as  to  his 
character  and  writings." 


384 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


understood  the  procedure  for  which  she  had  to 
pay  costs,  as  Paine's  legatee.  Whether  an  ulti- 
mate decision  was  reached  or  not,  the  sufficiently 
shameful  fact  remains  that  Thomas  Paine  was 
practically  disfranchised  in  the  country  to  which  he 
had  rendered  services  pronounced  pre-eminent  by 
Congress,  by  Washington,  and  by  every  soldier  and 
statesman  of  the  Revolution. 

Paine  had  in  New  York  the  most  formidable  of 
enemies, — an  enemy  with  a  newspaper.  This  was 
James  Cheetham,  of  whom  something  has  been 
said  in  the  preface  to  this  work  (p.  xvi.).  In  addi- 
tion to  what  is  there  stated,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  Paine  had  observed,  soon  after  he  came  to  New 
York,  the  shifty  course  of  this  man's  paper,  The 
American  Citizen.  But  it  was  the  only  republican 
paper  in  New  York,  supported  Governor  Clinton, 
for  which  it  had  reason,  since  it  had  the  State 
printing, — and  Colonel  Fellows  advised  that  Cheet- 
ham should  not  be  attacked.  Cheetham  had  been 
an  attendant  on  Elihu  Palmer's  lectures,  and  after 
his  participation  in  the  dinner  to  Paine,  his  federal- 
ist opponent,  the  Evening  Post,  alluded  to  his 
being  at  Palmer's.  Thereupon  Cheetham  declared 
that  he  had  not  heard  Palmer  for  two  years.  In 
the  winter  of  1804  he  casually  spoke  of  Paine's 
"mischievous  doctrines."  In  the  following  year, 
when  Paine  wrote  the  defence  of  Jefferson's  per- 
sonal  character  already  alluded  to,  Cheetham 
omitted  a  reference  in  it  to  Alexander  Hamilton's 
pamphlet,  by  which  he  escaped  accusation  of  offi- 
cial defalcation  by  confessing  an  amorous  intrigue.' 

'  "  I  see  that  Cheetham  has  left  out  the  part  respecting  Hamilton  and 


A  NEW  YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


385 


Cheetham  having  been  wont  to  write  of  Hamilton 
as  "  the  gallant  of  Mrs.  Reynolds,"  Paine  did  not 
give  much  credit  to  the  pretext  of  respect  for  the 
dead,  on  which  the  suppression  was  justified.  He 
was  prepared  to  admit  that  his  allusion  might  be 
fairly  suppressed,  but  perceived  that  the  omission 
was  made  merely  to  give  Cheetham  a  chance  for 
vaunting  his  superior  delicacy,  and  casting  a  suspi- 
cion on  Paine.  "  Cheetham,"  wrote  Paine,  "  might 
as  well  have  put  the  part  in,  as  put  in  the  reasons 
for  which  he  left  it  out.  Those  reasons  leave 
people  to  suspect  that  the  part  suppressed  related 
to  some  new  discovered  immorality  in  Hamilton 
worse  than  the  old  story." 

About  the  same  time  with  Paine,  an  Irishman 
came  to  America,  and,  after  travelling  about  the 
country  a  good  deal,  established  a  paper  in  New 
York  called  The  People  s  Friend.  This  paper 
began  a  furious  onslaught  on  the  French,  professed 
to  have  advices  that  Napoleon  meant  to  retake 
New  Orleans,  and  urged  an  offensive  alliance  of 
the  United  States  with  England  against  France 
and  Spain.  These  articles  appeared  in  the  early 
autumn  of  1806,  when,  as  we  have  seen,  Paine  was 
especially  beset  by  personal  worries.  They  made 
him  frantic.    His  denunciations,  merited  as  they 

Mrs.  Reynolds,  but  for  my  own  part  I  wish  it  had  been  in.  Had  the  story 
never  been  publicly  told  I  would  not  have  been  the  first  to  tell  it  ;  but 
Hamilton  had  told  it  himself,  and  therefore  it  was  no  secret ;  but  my  motive 
in  introducing  it  was  because  it  was  applicable  to  the  subject  I  was  upon, 
and  to  show  the  revilers  of  Mr.  Jefferson  that  while  they  are  affecting  a 
morality  of  horror  at  an  unproved  and  unfounded  story  about  Mr.  Jefferson, 
they  had  better  look  at  hume  and  give  vent  to  their  horror,  if  they  had  any, 
at  a  real  case  of  their  own  Dagon  (sic)  and  his  Delilah." — Paine  to  Colonel 
Fellows,  July  31,  1805. 

VOL.  II. — 25 


# 


386 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


were,  of  this  assailant  of  France  reveal  the  unstrung- 
condition  of  the  old  author's  nerves.  Duane,  of 
the  Philadelphia  Aurora,  recognized  in  Carpenter 
a  man  he  had  seen  in  Calcutta,  where  he  bore  the 
name  of  Cullen,  It  was  then  found  that  he  had  on 
his  arrival  in  America  borne  the  alias  of  Mac- 
cullen,  Paine  declared  that  he  was  an  "emissary" 
sent  to  this  country  by  Windham,  and  indeed  most 
persons  were  at  length  satisfied  that  such  was  the 
case.  Paine  insisted  that  loyalty  to  our  French 
alliance  demanded  Cullen's  expulsion.  His  ex- 
posures of  "  the  emissary  Cullen "  (who  disap- 
peared) were  printed  in  a  new  republican  paper  in 
New  York,  The  P^iblic  Advertiser,  edited  by  Mr. 
Frank.  The  combat  drew  public  attention  to  the 
new  paper,  and  Cheetham  was  probably  enraged 
by  Paine's  transfer  of  his  pen  to  Frank.  In  1807, 
Paine  had  a  large  following  in  New  York,  his 
friends  being  none  the  less  influential  among  the 
masses  because  not  in  the  fashionable  world. 
Moreover,  the  very  popular  Mayor  of  New  York, 
De  Witt  Clinton,  was  a  hearty  admirer  of  Paine. 
So  Cheetham's  paper  suffered  sadly,  and  he  opened 
his  guns  on  Paine,  declaring  that  in  the  Revolution 
he  (Paine)  "  had  stuck  very  correctly  to  his  pen  in 
a  safe  retreat,"  that  his  "  Rights  of  Man  "  merely 
repeated  Locke,  and  so  forth.  He  also  began  to 
denounce  France  and  applaud  England,  which  led 
to  the  belief  that,  having  lost  republican  patronage, 
Cheetham  was  aiming  to  get  that  of  England. 

In  a  "  Reply  to  Cheetham"  (August  21st),  Paine 
met  personalities  in  kind.  "  Mr.  Cheetham,  in  his 
rage  for  attacking  everybody  and  everything  that  is 


A  NEIV   YORK  PROMETHEUS. 


387 


not  his  own  (for  he  is  an  ugly-tempered  man,  and 
he  carries  the  evidence  of  it  in  the  vulgarity  and 
forbiddingness  of  his  countenance — God  has  set  a 
mark  upon  Cain),  has  attacked  me,  etc."  In  reply 
to  further  attacks,  Paine  printed  a  piece  headed 
"  Cheetham  and  his  Tory  Paper."  He  said  that 
Cheetham  was  discovering  symptoms  of  being  the 
successor  of  Cullen,  alias  Carpenter.  "  Like  him 
he  is  seeking  to  involve  the  United  States  in  a 
quarrel  with  France  for  the  benefit  of  England." 
This  article  caused  a  duel  between  the  rival  editors, 
Cheetham  and  Frank,  which  seems  to  have  been 
harmless.  Paine  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Evening 
Post,  saying  that  he  had  entreated  Frank  to  an- 
swer Cheetham's  challenge  by  declaring  that  he 
(Paine)  had  written  the  article  and  was  the  man  to 
be  called  to  account.  In  company  Paine  men- 
tioned an  opinion  expressed  by  the  President  in 
a  letter  just  received.  This  got  into  the  papers, 
and  Cheetham  declared  that  the  President  could 
not  have  so  written,  and  that  Paine  was  intoxicated 
when  he  said  so.  For  this  Paine  instituted  a  suit 
against  Cheetham  for  slander,  but  died  before  any 
trial. 

Paine  had  prevailed  with  his  pen,  but  a  terrible 
revenge  was  plotted  against  his  good  name.  The 
farrier  William  Carver,  in  whose  house  he  had 
lived,  turned  Judas,  and  concocted  with  Cheetham 
the  libels  against  Paine  that  have  passed  as  history. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


PERSONAL  TRAITS. 

On  July  I,  1806,  two  young  English  gentlemen, 
Daniel  and  William  Constable,  arrived  in  New 
York,  and  for  some  years  travelled  about  the  coun- 
try. The  Diary  kept  by  Daniel  Constable  has  been 
shown  me  by  his  nephew,  Clair  J.  Grece,  LL.D. 
It  contains  interesting  allusions  to  Paine,  to  whom 
they  brought  an  introduction  from  Rickman. 

"July  I.  To  the  Globe,  in  Maiden  Lane,  to  dine.  Mr. 
Segar  at  the  Globe  offered  to  send  for  Mr.  Paine,  who  lived 
only  a  few  doors  off  :    He  seemed  a  true  Painite. 

"  3d.  William  and  I  went  to  see  Thomas  Paine.  When  we 
first  called  he  was  taking  a  nap.  .  .  .  Back  to  Mr.  Paine's 
about  5  o'clock,  sat  about  an  hour  with  him.  ...  I  meant 
to  have  had  T.  Paine  in  a  carriage  with  me  to-morrow,  and 
went  to  inquire  for  one.  The  price  was  $1  per  hour,  but  when 
I  proposed  it  to  T.  P.  he  declined  it  on  account  of  his  health. 

"  4th.  Friday.  Fine  clear  day.  The  annual  Festival  of 
Independence.  We  were  up  by  five  o'clock,  and  on  the  battery 
saw  the  cannons  fired,  in  commemoration  of  liberty,  which  had 
been  employed  by  the  English  against  the  sacred  cause.  The 
people  seemed  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  day  :  stores  &c. 
were  generally  shut.  ...  In  the  fore  part  of  the  day  I  had 
the  honour  of  walking  with  T.  Paine  along  the  Broadway.  The 
day  finished  peaceably,  and  we  saw  no  scenes  of  quarreling  or 
drunkenness. 

"  14.  A  very  hot  day.  Evening,  met  T.  Paine  in  the 
Broadway  and  walked  with  him  to  his  house. 

388 


PERSONAL  TRAITS. 


389 


"  Oct.  29  [on  returning  from  a  journey].  Called  to  see  T. 
Paine,  who  was  walking  about  Carver's  shop." 

"  Nov.  I.  Changed  snuff-boxes  with  T.  Paine  at  his  lod- 
gings.' The  old  philosopher,  in  bed  at  4  o'clock  afternoon, 
seems  as  talkative  and  well  as  when  we  saw  him  in  the  summer." 

In  a  letter  written  jointly  by  the  brothers  to 
their  parents,  dated  July  6th,  they  say  that  Paine 
"  begins  to  feel  the  effects  of  age.  The  print  I 
left  at  Horley  is  a  very  strong  likeness.  He  lives 
with  a  small  family  who  came  from  Lewes  [Carvers] 
quite  retired,  and  but  little  known  or  noticed." 
They  here  also  speak  of  "  the  honour  of  walking 
with  our  old  friend  T.  Paine  in  the  midst  of  the 
bustle  on  Independence  Day."  There  is  no  sug- 
gestion, either  here  or  in  the  Diary,  that  these  gen- 
tlemen of  culture  and  position  observed  anything 
in  the  appearance  or  habits  of  Paine  that  dimin- 
ished the  pleasure  of  meeting  him.  In  November 
they  travelled  down  the  Mississippi,  and  on  their 
return  to  New  York,  nine  months  later,  they  heard 
(July  20,  1807)  foul  charges  against  Paine  from 
Carver.  "  Paine  has  left  his  house,  and  they  have 
had  a  violent  disagreement.  Carver  charges  Paine 
with  many  foul  vices,  as  debauchery,  lying,  ingrati- 
tude, and  a  total  want  of  common  honour  in  all  his 
actions,  says  that  he  drinks  regularly  a  quart  of 
brandy  per  day."  But  next  day  they  call  on  Paine,  in 
"  the  Bowery  road,"  and  William  Constable  writes  : 

"  He  looks  better  than  last  year.  He  read  us  an  essay  on 
national  defence,  comparing  the  different  expenses  and  powers 

'Dr.  Grece  showed  me  Paine's  papier-mache  snuff-box,  which  his  uncle 
had  fitted  with  silver  plate,  inscription,  decorative  eagle,  and  banner  of 
"Liberty,  Equality."  It  is  kept  in  a  jewel-box  with  an  engraving  of 
Paine  on  the  lid. 


390 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


of  gunboats  and  ships  of  war  and  batteries  in  protecting  a 
sea  coast  ;  and  gave  D.  C.  [Daniel  Constable]  a  copy  of  his 
Examination  of  the  texts  of  scriptures  called  prophecies,  etc., 
which  he  published  a  short  time  since.  He  says  that  this 
work  is  of  too  high  a  cut  for  the  priests  and  that  they  will 
not  touch  it." 

These  brothers  Constable  met  Fulton,  "  a  friend 
of  Paine's,"  just  then  experimenting  with  his  steam- 
boat on  the  Hudson.  They  also  found  that  a 
scandal  had  been  caused  by  a  report  brought  to 
the  British  Consul  that  thirty  passengers  on  the  ship 
by  which  they  (the  Constables)  came,  had  "  the 
Bible  bound  up  with  the  '  Age  of  Reason,'  and 
that  they  spoke  in  very  disrespectful  terms  of  the 
mother  country."  Paine  had  left  his  farm  at  New 
Rochelle,  at  which  place  the  travellers  heard  stories 
of  his  slovenliness,  also  that  he  was  penurious, 
though  nothing  was  said  of  intemperance. 

Inquiry  among  aged  residents  of  New  Rochelle 
has  been  made  from  time  to  time  for  a  great  many 
years.  The  Hon.  J.  B.  Stallo,  late  U.  S.  Minister 
to  Italy,  told  me  that  in  early  life  he  visited  the 
place  and  saw  persons  who  had  known  Paine,  and 
declared  that  Paine  resided  there  without  fault. 
Paine  lived  for  a  time  with  Mr.  Staple,  brother  of 
the  influential  Captain  Pelton,  and  the  adoption 
of  Paine's  religious  views  by  some  of  these  persons 
caused  the  odium.'  Paine  sometimes  preached  at 
New  Rochelle. 

'  Mr.  Burger,  Pelton's  clerk,  used  to  drive  Paine  about  daily.    Vale  says  : 
"  He  [Burger]  describes  Mr.  Paine  as  really  abstemious,  and  when  pressed 
to  drink  by  those  on  whom  he  called  during  his  rides,  he  iisually  refused  with 
great  firmness,  but  politely.    In  one  of  these  rides  ,he  was  met  by  De  Witt 
Clinton,  and  their  mutual  greetings  were  extremely  hearty.    Mr.  Paine  at 


PERSONAL  TRAITS. 


Cheetham  publishes  a  correspondence  purporting 
to  have  passed  between  Paine  and  Carver,  in  No- 
vember, 1806,  in  which  the  former  repudiates  the 
latter's  bill  for  board  (though  paying  it),  saying  he 
was  badly  and  dishonestly  treated  in  Carver's  house, 
and  had  taken  him  out  of  his  Will.  To  this  a  reply 
is  printed,  signed  by  Carver,  which  he  certainly 
never  wrote  ;  specimens  of  his  composition,  now 
before  me,  prove  him  hardly  able  to  spell  a  word 
correctly  or  to  frame  a  sentence.'  The  letter  in 
Cheetham  shows  a  practised  hand,  and  was  evi- 
dently written  for  Carver  by  the  "  biographer." 
This  ungenuineness  of  Carver's  letter,  and  expres- 
sions not  characteristic  in  that  of  Paine  render  the 
correspondence  mythical.  Although  Carver  passed 
many  penitential  years  hanging  about  Paine  cele- 
brations, deploring  the  wrong  he  had  done  Paine, 
he  could  not  squarely  repudiate  the  correspondence, 

this  time  was  the  reverse  of  morose,  and  though  careless  of  his  dress  and 
prodigal  of  his  snuff,  he  was  always  clean  and  well  clothed.  Mr.  Burger 
describes  him  as  familiar  with  children  and  humane  to  animals,  playing  with 
the  neighboring  children,  and  communicating  a  friendly  pat  even  to  a  passing 
dog."    Our  frontispiece  shows  Paine's  dress  in  1803. 

'  In  the  Concord  (Hass.)  Public  Library  there  is  a  copy  of  Cheetham's 
book,  which  belonged  to  Carver,  by  whom  it  was  filled  with  notes.  He 
says:  "  Cheetham ^was  a  hypocrate  turned  Tory,"  "  Paine  was  not  Drunk 
when  he  wrote  the  thre  pedlars  for  me,  I  sold  them  to  a  gentleman,  a  Jew 
for  a  dollar — -Cheetham  knew  that  he  told  a  lie  saying  Paine  was  drunk — any 
person  reading  Cheetham's  life  of  Paine  that  \sic\  his  pen  was  guided  by 
prejudice  that  was  brought  on  by  Cheetham's  altering  a  peice  that  Paine  had 
writen  as  an  answer  to  a  peice  that  had  apeared  in  his  paper,  I  had  careyd 
the  peice  to  Cheetham,  the  next  Day  the  answer  was  printed  with  the  altera- 
tion, Paine  was  angry,  sent  me  to  call  Cheetham  I  then  asked  how  he 
undertook  to  mutilate  the  peice,  if  aney  thing  was  rong  he  knew  ware  to  find 
him  &  sad  he  never  permitted  a  printer  to  alter  what  he  had  wrote,  that  the 
sence  of  the  peice  was  spoiled — by  this  means  their  freind  ship  was  broken  » 

up  through  life  "    (The  marginalia  in  this  volume  have  been  copied  for 

me  with  exactness  by  Miss  E.  G.  Crowell,  of  Concord.) 


392 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


to  which  Cheetham  had  compelled  him  to  swear  irt 
court.  He  used  to  declare  that  Cheetham  had 
obtained  under  false  pretences  and  printed  without 
authority  letters  written  in  anger.  But  thrice  in 
his  letter  to  Paine  Carver  says  he  means  to  pub- 
lish it.  Its  closing  words  are  :  "  There  may  be 
many  grammatical  errours  in  this  letter.  To  you 
I  have  no  apologies  to  make  ;  but  I  hope  a  candid 
and  impartial  public  will  not  view  them  '  with  a 
critick's  eye.'"  This  is  artful  ;  besides  the  fling  at 
Paine's  faulty  grammar,  which  Carver  could  not 
discover,  there  is  a  pretence  to  faults  in  his  own 
letter  which  do  not  exist,  but  certainly  would  have 
existed  had  he  written  it.  The  style  throughout  is 
transparently  Cheetham's. 

In  the  book  at  Concord  the  unassisted  Carver 
writes  :  "  The  libel  for  wich  \sic\  he  [Cheetham] 
was  sued  was  contained  in  the  letter  I  wrote  to 
Paine."  This  was  the  libel  on  Madame  Bonne- 
ville, Carver's  antipathy  to  whom  arose  from  his 
hopes  of  Paine's  property.  In  reply  to  Paine's 
information,  that  he  was  excluded  from  his  Will, 
Carver  says  :  "  I  likewise  have  to  inform  you,  that 
I  totally  disregard  the  power  of  your  mind  and 
pen  ;  for  should  you,  by  your  conduct,  permit  this 
letter  to  appear  in  public,  in  vain  may  you  attempt 
to  print  or  publish  any  thing  afterwards."  This  is 
plainly  an  attempt  at  blackmail.  Carver's  letter  is 
dated  December  2,  1806.  It  was  not  published 
during  Paine's  life,  for  the  farrier  hoped  to  get 
back  into  the  Will  by  frightening  Madame  Bonne- 
ville and  other  friends  of  Paine  with  the  stories  he 
meant  to  tell.    About  a  year  before  Paine's  death 


PERSONAL  TRAITS. 


393 


he  made  another  blackmailing  attempt.  He  raked 
up  the  scandalous  stories  published  by  "  Oldys  " 
concerning  Paine's  domestic  troubles  in  Lewes, 
pretending  that  he  knew  the  facts  personally.  "  Of 
these  facts  Mr.  Carver  has  offered  me  an  affidavit," 
says  Cheetham.  "  He  stated  them  all  to  Paine  in 
a  private  letter  which  he  wrote  to  him  a  year  before 
his  death  ;  to  which  no  answer  was  returned.  Mr. 
Carver  showed  me  the  letter  soon  after  it  was 
written."  On  this  plain  evidence  of  long  con- 
spiracy with  Cheetham,  and  attempt  to  blackmail 
Paine  when  he  was  sinking  in  mortal  illness,  Carver 
never  made  any  comment.  When  Paine  was  known 
to  be  near  his  end  Carver  made  an  effort  at  concili- 
ation. "  I  think  it  a  pity,"  he  wrote,  "  that  you  or 
myself  should  depart  this  life  with  envy  in  our 
hearts  against  each  other — and  I  firmly  believe  that 
no  difference  would  have  taken  place  between  us, 
had  not  some  of  your  pretended  friends  endeavored 
to  have  caused  a  separation  of  friendship  between 
us."  '  But  abjectness  was  not  more  effectual  than 
blackmail.  The  property  went  to  the  Bonnevilles, 
and  Carver,  who  had  flattered  Paine's  "great 
mind,"  in  the  letter  just  quoted,  proceeded  to  write 
a  mean  one  about  the  dead  author  for  Cheetham's 
projected  biography.  He  did  not,  however,  expect 
Cheetham  to  publish  his  slanderous  letter  about 
Paine  and  Madame  Bonneville,  which  he  meant 
merely  for  extortion  ;  nor  could  Cheetham  have 
got  the  letter  had  he  not  written  it.  All  of  Cheet- 
ham's libels  on  Paine's  life  in  New  York  are  ampli- 
fications of  Carver's  insinuations.    In  describing 

'  "A  Bone  to  Gnaw  for  Grant  Thorburn."    By  W.  Carver  (1836). 


394 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Cheetham  as  "  an  abominable  liar,"  Carver  passes 
sentence  on  himself.  On  this  blackmailer,  this 
confessed  libeller,  rest  originally  and  fundamentally 
the  charges  relating  to  Paine's  last  years. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  Paine  boarded  for 
a  time  in  the  Bayeaux  mansion.  With  Mrs.  Bay- 
eaux  lived  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Badeau.  In  1891  I 
visited,  at  New  Rocherie,  Mr.  Albert  Badeau,  son 
of  the  lady  last  named,  finding  him,  as  I  hope  he 
still  is,  in  good  health  and  memory.  Seated  in  the 
arm-chair  given  him  by  his  mother,  as  that  in  which 
Paine  used  to  sit  by  their  fireside,  I  took  down  for 
publication  some  words  of  his.  "My  mother  would 
never  tolerate  the  aspersions  on  Mr.  Paine.  She 
declared  steadfastly  to  the  end  of  her  life  that  he 
was  a  perfect  gentleman,  and  a  most  faithful  friend, 
amiable,  gentle,  never  intemperate  in  eating  or 
drinking.  My  mother  declared  that  my  grand- 
mother equally  pronounced  the  disparaging  reports 
about  Mr.  Paine  slanders.  I  never  remember  to 
have  seen  my  mother  angry  except  when  she  heard 
such  calumnies  of  Mr.  Paine,  when  she  would  almost 
insult  those  who  uttered  them.  My  mother  and 
grandmother  were  very  religious,  members  of  the 
Episcopal  Church,"  What  Mr.  Albert  Badeau's 
religious  opinions  are  I  do  not  know,  but  no  one 
acquainted  with  that  venerable  gentleman  could  for 
an  instant  doubt  his  exactness  and  truthfulness.  It 
certainly  was  not  until  some  years  after  his  return 
to  America  that  any  slovenliness  could  be  observed 
about  Paine,  and  the  contrary  was  often  remarked 
in  former  times.'    After  he  had  come  to  New  York, 

'  "  He  dined  at  my  table,"  said  Aaron  Burr.      "  I  always  considered  Mr. 


PERSOh'AL  TRAITS. 


395 


and  was  neglected  by  the  pious  ladies  and  gentle- 
men with  whom  lie  had  once  associated,  he  neglected 
his  personal  appearance.  "  Let  those  dress  who 
need  it,"  he  said  to  a  friend. 

Paine  was  prodigal  of  snuff,  but  used  tobacco  in 
no  other  form.  He  had  aversion  to  profanity,  and 
never  told  or  listened  to  indecent  anecdotes. 

With  regard  to  the  charges  of  excessive  drinking 
made  against  Paine,  I  have  sifted  a  vast  mass  of 
contrarious  testimonies,  and  arrived  at  the  follow- 
ing conclusions.  In  earlier  life  Paine  drank  spirits, 
as  was  the  custom  in  England  and  America  ;  and 
he  unfortunately  selected  brandy,  which  causes 
alcoholic  indigestion,  and  may  have  partly  pro- 
duced the  oft-quoted  witness  against  him — his 
somewhat  red  nose.  His  nose  was  prominent,  and 
began  to  be  red  when  he  was  fifty-five.  That  was 
just  after  he  had  been  dining  a  good  deal  with  rich 
people  in  England,  and  at  public  dinners.  During 
his  early  life  in  England  (i 737-1 774)  no  instance 
of  excess  was  known,  and  Paine  expressly  pointed 
the  Excise  Office  to  his  record.  "  No  complaint  of 
the  least  dishonesty  or  intemperance  has  ever  ap- 
peared against  me."  His  career  in  America  (1774- 
1787)  was  free  from  any  suspicion  of  intemperance. 
John  Hall's  daily  diary  while  working  with  Paine 
for  months  is  minute,  mentioning  everything,  but 

Paine  a  gentleman,  a  pleasant  companion,  and  a  good-natured  and  intelli- 
gent man  ;  decidedly  temperate,  with  a  proper  regard  for  his  personal 
appearance,  whenever  I  have  seen  him."  (Quoted  in  The  Beacon,  No.  30, 
May,  1837.)  "  In  his  dress,"  says  Joel  Barlow,  "he  was  generally  very 
cleanly,  though  careless,  and  wore  his  hair  queued  with  side  curls,  and 
powdered,  like  a  gentleman  of  the  old  French  School.  His  manners  were 
easy  and  gracious,  his  knowledge  universal." 


39^ 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


in  no  case  is  a  word  said  of  Paine's  drinking.  This 
was  in  i  785-7.  Paine's  enemy,  Chalmers  ("  Oldys"), 
raked  up  in  1791  every  charge  he  could  against 
Paine,  but  intemperance  is  not  included.  Paine 
told  Rickman  that  in  Paris,  when  borne  down  by 
public  and  private  affliction,  he  had  been  driven  to 
excess.  That  period  I  have  identified  on  a  former 
page  (ii.,  p.  59)  as  a  few  weeks  in  1793,  when  his 
dearest  friends  were  on  their  way  to  the  guillotine, 
whither  he  daily  expected  to  follow  them.  After 
that  Paine  abstained  altogether  from  spirits,  and 
drank  wine  in  moderation.  Mr.  Lovett,  who  kept 
the  City  Hotel,  New  York,  where  Paine  stopped  in 
1803  3-"^  1804  for  some  weeks,  wrote  a  note  to 
Caleb  Bingham,  of  Boston,  in  which  he  says  that 
Paine  drank  less  than  any  of  his  boarders.  Gilbert 
Vale,  in  preparing  his  biography,  questioned  D. 
Burger,  the  clerk  of  Pelton's  store  at  New  Rochelle, 
and  found  that  Paine's  liquor  supply  while  there  was 
one  quart  of  rum  per  week.  Brandy  he  had  en- 
tirely discarded.  He  also  questioned  Jarvis,  the 
artist,  in  whose  house  Paine  resided  in  New  York 
(Church  Street)  five  months,  who  declared  that 
what  Cheetham  had  reported  about  Paine  and 
himself  was  entirely  false.  Paine,  he  said,  "  did  not 
and  could  not  drink  much."  In  July,  1809,  just 
after  Paine's  death,  Cheetham  wrote  Barlow  for 
information  concerning  Paine,  "  useful  in  illustrat- 
ing his  character,"  and  said  :  "  He  was  a  great  drunk- 
ard here,  and  Mr.  M.,  a  merchant  of  this  city,  who 
lived  with  him  when  he  was  arrested  by  order  of 
Robespierre,  tells  me  he  was  intoxicated  when  that 
event  happened."    Barlow,  recently  returned  from 


PERSONAL  TRAITS. 


397 


Europe,  was  living  just  out  of  Washington  ;  he 
could  know  nothing  of  Cheetham's  treachery,  and 
fell  into  his  trap  ;  he  refuted  the  story  of  "  Mr. 
M.,"  of  course,  but  took  it  for  granted  that  a  sup- 
posed republican  editor  would  tell  the  truth  about 
Paine  in  New  York,  and  wrote  of  the  dead  author 
as  having  "  a  mind,  though  strong  enough  to  bear 
him  up  and  to  rise  elastic  under  the  heaviest  hand 
of  oppression,  yet  unable  to  endure  the  contempt  of 
his  former  friends  and  fellow-laborers,  the  rulers  of 
the  country  that  had  received  his  first  and  greatest 
services  ;  a  mind  incapable  of  looking  down  with 
serene  compassion,  as  it  ought,  on  the  rude  scoffs 
of  their  imitators,  a  new  generation  that  knows  him 
not ;  a  mind  that  shrinks  from  their  society,  and 
unhappily  seeks  refuge  in  low  company,  or  looks 
for  consolation  in  the  sordid,  solitary  bottle,  etc,"  ^ 
Barlow,  misled  as  he  was,  well  knew  Paine's  nature, 
and  that  if  he  drank  to  excess  it  was  not  from 
appetite,  but  because  of  ingratitude  and  wrong. 
The  man  was  not  a  stock  or  a  stone.  If  any  can 
find  satisfaction  in  the  belief  that  Paine  found  no 
Christian  in  America  so  merciful  as  rum,  they  may 
perhaps  discover  some  grounds  for  it  in  a  brief 
period  of  his  sixty-ninth  year.  While  living  in  the 
house  of  Carver,  Paine  was  seized  with  an  illness 
that  threatened  to  be  mortal,  and  from  which  he 
never  fully  recovered.  It  is  probable  that  he  was 
kept  alive  for  a  time  by  spirits  during  the  terrible 
time,  but  this  ceased  when  in  the  latter  part  of 
1806  he  left  Carver's  to  live  with  Jarvis.    In  the 

'  Todd's  "Joel  Barlow,"  p.  236.  The  "Mr.  M."  was  one  Murray,  an 
English  speculator  in  France,  where  he  never  resided  with  Paine  at  all. 


# 


398 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Spring  of  1808  he  resided  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Hitt, 
a  baker,  in  Broome  Street,  and  there  remained  ten 
months.  Mr.  Hitt  reports  that  Paine's  weekly  sup- 
ply then — his  seventy-second  year,  and  his  last — 
was  three  quarts  of  rum  per  week. 

After  Paine  had  left  Carver's  he  became  ac- 
quainted with  more  people.  The  late  Judge  Tabor's 
recollections  have  been  sent  me  by  his  son,  Mr. 
Stephen  Tabor,  of  Independence,  Iowa. 

"  I  was  an  associate  editor  of  the  Nerv  York  Beacon  with 
Col.  John  Fellows,  then  (1836)  advanced  in  years,  but  retain- 
ing all  the  vigor  and  fire  of  his  manhood.  He  was  a  ripe 
scholar,  a  most  agreeable  companion,  and  had  been  the  cor- 
respondent and  friend  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe  and  John 
Quincy  Adams,  under  all  of  whom  he  held  a  responsible  office. 
One  of  his  productions  was  dedicated,  by  permission,  to  [J.  Q.] 
Adams,  and  was  republished  and  favorably  received  in  Eng- 
land. Col.  Fellows  was  the  soul  of  honor  and  inflexible  in  his 
adherence  to  truth.  He  was  intimate  with  Paine  during  the 
whole  time  he  lived  after  returning  to  this  country,  and  boarded 
for  a  year  in  the  same  house  with  him. 

*'  I  also  was  acquainted  with  Judge  Hertell,  of  New  York 
City,  a  man  of  wealth  and  position,  being  a  member  of  the 
New  York  Legislature,  both  in  the  Senate  and  Assembly,  and 
serving  likewise  on  the  judicial  bench.  Like  Col.  Fellows,  he 
was  an  author,  and  a  man  of  unblemished  life  and  irreproach- 
able character. 

"  These  men  assured  me  of  their  own  knowledge  derived 
from  constant  personal  intercourse  during  the  last  seven  years 
of  Paine's  life,  that  he  never  kept  any  company  but  what  was 
entirely  respectable,  and  that  all  accusations  of  drunkenness 
were  grossly  untrue.  They  saw  him  under  all  circumstances  and 
knew  that  he  was  never  intoxicated.  Nay,  more,  they  said,  for 
that  day,  he  was  even  abstemious.  That  was  a  drinking  age 
and  Paine,  like  Jefferson,  could  "  bear  but  little  spirit,"  so  that 
he  was  constitutionally  temperate. 

"  Cheatham  refers  to  William  Carver  and  the  portrait  painter 


PERSONA!.  TRAITS. 


399 


Jarvis.  I  visited  Carver,  in  com])any  with  Col.  Fellows,  and 
naturally  conversed  with  the  old  man  about  Paine.  He  said 
that  the  allegation  that  Paine  was  a  drunkard  was  altogether 
w-ithout  foundation.  In  speaking  of  his  letter  to  Paine  which 
Cheetham  published.  Carver  said  that  he  was  angry  when  he 
wrote  it  and  that  he  wrote  unwisely,  as  angry  men  generally  do  ; 
that  Cheetham  obtained  the  letter  under  false  pretenses  and 
printed  it  without  authority. 

"  Col.  Fellows  and  Judge  Hertell  visited  Paine  throughout 
the  whole  course  of  his  last  illness.  They  repeatedly  conversed 
with  him  on  religious  topics  and  they  declared  that  he  died 
serenely,  philosophically  and  resignedly.  This  information  1 
had  directly  from  their  own  lips,  and  their  characters  were  so 
spotless,  and  their  integrity  so  unquestioned,  that  more  reliable 
testimony  it  would  be  impossible  to  give." 

Duringr  Paine's  life  the  world  heard  no  hint  of 
sexual  immorality  connected  with  him,  but  after  his 
death  Cheetham  published  the  following  :  "  Paine 
brouofht  with  him  from  Paris,  and  from  her  hus- 
band  in  whose  house  he  had  lived,  Margaret 
Brazier  Bonneville,  and  her  three  sons.  Thomas 
has  the  features,  countenance,  and  temper  of 
Paine."  Madame  Bonneville  promptly  sued  Cheet- 
ham for  slander.  Cheetham  had  betrayed  his 
"  pal,"  Carver,  by  printing  the  letter  concocted  to 
blackmail  Paine,  for  whose  composition  the  farrier 
no  doubt  supposed  he  had  paid  the  editor  with 
stories  borrowed  from  "  Oldys,"  or  not  actionable. 
Cheetham  probably  recognized,  when  he  saw 
Madame  Bonneville  in  court,  that  he  too  had  been 
deceived,  and  that  any  illicit  relation  between  the 
accused  lady  and  Paine,  thirty  years  her  senior,  was 
preposterous.  Cheetham's  lawyer  (Grififin)  insinu- 
ated terrible  things  that  his  witnesses  were  to 
prove,  but  they  all  dissolved  into  Carver.  Mrs. 


400 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Ryder,  with  whom  Paine  had  boarded,  admitted 
trying  to  make  Paine  smile  by  saying  Thomas  was 
like  him,  but  vehemently  repudiated  the  slander. 
"  Mrs.  Bonneville  often  came  to  visit  him.  She 
never  saw  but  decency  with  Mrs.  Bonneville.  She 
never  staid  there  but  one  night,  when  Paine  was 
very  sick."  Mrs.  Dean  was  summoned  to  support 
one  of  Carver's  lies  that  Madame  Bonneville  tried 
to  cheat  Paine,  but  denied  the  whole  story  (which 
has  unfortunately  been  credited  by  Vale  and  other 
writers).  The  Rev.  Mr.  Foster,  who  had  a  claim 
against  Paine's  estate  for  tuition  of  the  Bonne- 
villes,  was  summoned.  "  Mrs.  Bonneville,"  he  tes- 
tified, "might  possibly  have  said  as  much  as  that 
but  for  Paine  she  would  not  have  come  here,  and 
that  he  was  under  special  obligations  to  provide  for 
her  children."  A  Westchester  witness,  Peter  Un- 
derbill, testified  that  "he  one  day  told  Mrs.  Bonne- 
ville that  her  child  resembled  Paine,  and  Mrs. 
Bonneville  said  it  was  Paine's  child."  But,  apart 
from  the  intrinsic  incredibility  of  this  statement 
(unless  she  meant  "god-son").  Underbill's  character 
broke  down  under  the  testimony  of  his  neighbors, 
Judge  Sommerville  and  Captain  Pelton.  Cheetham 
had  thus  no  dependence  but  Carver,  who  actually 
tried  to  support  his  slanders  from  the  dead  lips  of 
Paine  !  But  in  doins:'  so  he  ruined  Cheetham's  case 
by  saying  that  Paine  told  him  Madame  Bonneville 
was  never  the  wife  of  M.  Bonneville  ;  the  charge 
being-  that  she  was  seduced  from  her  husband.  It 
was  extorted  from  Carver  that  Madame  Bonne- 
ville, having  seen  his  scurrilous  letter  to  Paine, 
threatened  to  prosecute  him ;  also  that  he  had 


PERSONAL  TRAITS. 


taken  his  wife  to  visit  Madame  Bonneville.  Then 
it  became  plain  to  Carver  that  Cheetham's  case 
was  lost,  and  he  deserted  it  on  the  witness-stand  ; 
declaring  that  "  he  had  never  seen  the  slightest 
indication  of  any  meretricious  or  illicit  commerce 
between  Paine  and  Mrs.  Bonneville,  that  they 
never  were  alone  together,  and  that  all  the  three 
children  were  alike  the  objects  of  Paine's  care." 
Counsellor  Sampson  (no  friend  to  Paine)  perceived 
that  Paine's  Will  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  busi- 
ness. "  That  is  the  key  to  this  mysterious  league 
of  apostolic  slanderers,  mortified  expectants  and 
disappointed  speculators."  Sampson's  invective 
was  terrific  ;  Cheetham  rose  and  claimed  protection 
of  the  court,  hinting  at  a  duel.  Sampson  took  a 
pinch  of  snuff,  and  pointing  his  finger  at  the 
defendant,  said  : 

"  If  he  complains  of  personalities,  he  who  is  hardened  in 
every  gross  abuse,  he  who  lives  reviling  and  reviled,  who  might 
construct  himself  a  monument  with  no  other  materials  but 
those  records  to  which  he  is  a  party,  and  in  which  he  stands 
enrolled  as  an  offender':  if  he  cannot  sit  still  to  hear  his  accu- 
sation, but  calls  for  the  protection  of  the  court  against  a  coun- 
sel whose  duty  it  is  to  make  his  crimes  appear,  how  does  she 
deserve  protection,  whom  he  has  driven  to  the  sad  necessity  of 
coming  here  to  vindicate  her  honor,  from  those  personalities 
he  has  lavished  on  her  ?  " 

The  editor  of  Counsellor  Sampson's  speech  says 
that  the  jury  "  although  composed  of  men  of  dif- 
ferent political  sentiments,  returned  in  a  few  min- 
utes a  verdict  of  guilty."    It  is  added  : 

'  Cheetham  was  at  the  moment  a  defendant  in  nine  or  ten  cases  for 
libel. 


4 


402 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


"  The  court,  however,  when  the  libeller  came  up  the  next 
day  to  receive  his  sentence,  highly  commended  the  book  which 
contained  the  libellous  publication,  declared  that  it  tended  to 
serve  the  cause  of  religion,  and  imposed  no  other  punishment 
on  the  libeller  than  the  payment  of  $150,  with  a  direction  that 
the  costs  be  taken  out  of  it.  It  is  fit  to  remark,  lest  foreigners 
who  are  unacquainted  with  our  political  condition  should 
receive  erroneous  impressions,  that  Mr.  Recorder  Hoffman 
does  not  belong  to  the  Republican  party  in  America,  but  has 
been  elevated  to  office  by  men  in  hostility  to  it,  who  obtained  a 
temporary  ascendency  in  the  councils  of  state."  ' 

Madame  Bonneville  had  in  court  eminent  wit- 
nesses to  her  character, — Thom.as  Addis  Emmet, 
Fulton,  Jarvis,  and  ladies  whose  children  she 
had  taught  French.  Yet  the  scandal  was  too  tempt- 
ing an  illustration  of  the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  to  disap- 
pear with  Cheetham's  defeat.  Americans  in  their 
peaceful  habitations  were  easily  made  suspicious  of 
a  French  woman  who  had  left  her  husband  in  Paris 
and  followed  Paine  ;  they  could  little  realize  the 
complications  into  which  ten  tempestuous  years 
had  thrown  thousands  of  families  in  France,  and 
how  such  poor  radicals  as  the  Bonnevilles  had  to 
live  as  they  could.  The  scandal  branched  into 
variants.  Twenty-five  years  later  pious  Grant 
Thorburn  promulgated  that  Paine  had  run  off  from 
Paris  with  the  wife  of  a  tailor  named  Palmer. 
"  Paine  made  no  scruples  of  living  with  this  woman 
openly."  (Mrs.  Elihu  Palmer,  in  her  penury,  was 
employed  by  Paine  to  attend  to  his  rooms,  etc., 

'  "  Speech  of  Counsellor  Sampson  ;  with  an  Introduction  to  the  Trial  of 
James  Cheetham,  Esq.,  for  a  libel  on  Margaret  Brazier  Bonneville,  in  his 
Memoirs  of  Thomas  Paine.  Philadelphia  :  Printed  by  John  Sweeny,  No. 
357  Arch  Street,  18 10."  I  am  indebted  for  the  use  of  this  rare  pamphlet, 
and  for  other  information,  to  the  industrious  collector  of  causes  cdebres,  Mr. 
E.  B.  Wynn,  of  Watertown,  N.  Y. 


PERSONAL  TRAITS. 


403 


during  a  few  months  of  illness.)  As  to  Madame 
Bonneville,  whose  name  Grant  Thorburn  seems 
not  to  have  heard,  she  was  turned  into  a  roman- 
tic figure.  Thorburn  says  that  Paine  escaped  the 
guillotine  by  the  execution  of  another  man  in  his 
place. 

"  The  man  who  suffered  death  for  Paine,  left  a  widow,  with 
two  young  children  in  poor  circumstances.  Paine  brought 
them  all  to  this  country,  supported  them  while  he  lived,  and,  it 
is  said,  left  most  of  his  property  to  them  when  he  died.  The 
widow  and  children  lived  in  apartments  up  town  by  them- 
selves. He  then  boarded  with  Carver.  I  believe  his  conduct 
was  disinterested  and  honorable  to  the  widow.  She  appeared 
to  be  about  thirty  years  of  age,  and  was  far  from  being  hand- 
some." ' 

Grant  Thorburn  was  afterwards  led  to  doubt 
whether  this  woman  was  the  widow  of  the  man 
pfuillotined,  but  declares  that  when  "  Paine  first 
brought  her  out,  he  and  his  friends  passed  her  off 
as  such."  As  a  myth  of  the  time  (1834),  and  an 
indication  that  Paine's  generosity  to  the  Bonne- 
ville family  was  well  known  in  New  York,  the 
story  is  worth  quoting.  But  the  Bonnevilles  never 
escaped  from  the  scandal.  Long  years  afterward, 
when  the  late  Gen.  Bonneville  was  residing  in  St. 
Louis,  it  was  whispered  about  that  he  was  the 
natural  son  of  Thomas  Paine,  though  he  was  born 
before  Paine  ever  met  Madame  Bonneville.  Of 
course  it  has  gone  into  the  religious  encyclo- 
paedias. The  best  of  them,  that  of  McClintock 
and  Strong,  says :  "  One  of  the  women  he  sup- 
ported [in  France]  followed  him  to  this  country." 
After  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  Nicholas  Bonneville, 

'  "  Forty  Years'  Residence  in  America." 


404 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


relieved  of  his  surveillance,  hastened  to  New  York, 
where  he  and  his  family  were  reunited,  and  enjoyed 
the  happiness  provided  by  Paine's  self-sacrificing 
economy. 

The  present  writer,  having  perused  some  thou- 
sands of  documents  concerning  Paine,  is  convinced 
that  no  charge  of  sensuality  could  have  been 
brought  against  him  by  any  one  acquainted  with 
the  facts,  except  out  of  malice.  Had  Paine  held, 
or  practised,  any  latitudinarian  theory  of  sexual 
liberty,  it  would  be  recorded  here,  and  his  reasons 
for  the  same  given.  I  have  no  disposition  to  sup- 
press anything.  Paine  was  conservative  in  such 
matters.  And  as  to  his  sacrificing  the  happiness 
of  a  home  to  his  own  pleasure,  nothing  could  be 
more  inconceivable. 

Above  all,  Paine  was  a  profoundly  religious  man, 
— one  of  the  few  in  our  revolutionary  era  of  whom 
it  can  be  said  that  his  delight  was  in  the  law  of  his 
Lord,  and  in  that  law  did  he  meditate  day  and 
night.  Consequently,  he  could  not  escape  the  imme- 
morial fate  of  the  great  believers,  to  be  persecuted 
for  unbelief — by  unbelievers. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION. 

The  blow  that  Paine  received  by  the  refusal  of 
his  vote  at  New  Rochelle  was  heavy.  Elisha 
Ward,  a  Tory  in  the  Revolution,  had  dexterously 
gained  power  enough  to  give  his  old  patrons  a 
good  revenge  on  the  first  advocate  of  indepen- 
dence. The  blow  came  at  a  time  when  his  means 
were  low,  and  Paine  resolved  to  apply  to  Congress 
for  payment  of  an  old  debt.  The  response  would  at 
once  relieve  him,  and  overwhelm  those  who  were 
insulting  him  in  New  York.  This  led  to  a  further 
humiliation,  and  one  or  two  letters  to  Congress,  of 
which  Paine's  enemies  did  not  fail  to  make  the  most.^ 

'  Paine  had  always  felt  that  Congress  was  in  his  debt  for  his  voyage  to 
France  for  supplies  with  Col.  Laurens  (i.,  p.  171).  In  a  letter  (Feb.  20, 
1782)  to  Robert  Morris,  Paine  mentions  that  when  Col.  Laurens  proposed 
that  he  should  accompany  him,  as  secretary,  he  was  on  the  point  of  estab- 
lishing a  newspaper.  He  had  purchased  twenty  reams  of  paper,  and  Mr. 
Izard  had  sent  to  St.  Eustatia  for  sev,enty  more.  This  scheme,  which  could 
hardly  fail  of  success,  was  relinquished  for  the  voyage.  It  was  undertaken 
at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  Laurens,  and  Paine  certainly  regarded  it  as  offi- 
cial. He  had  ninety  dollars  when  he  started,  in  bills  of  exchange  ;  when 
Col.  Laurens  left  him,  after  their  return,  he  had  but  two  louis  d'or.  The 
Memorial  sent  by  Paine  to  Congress  (Jan.  21,  1808)  recapitulated  facts 
known  to  my  reader.  It  was  presented  by  the  Hon.  George  Clinton,  Jr., 
February  4,  and  referred  to  the  Committee  of  Claims.  On  February  14th 
Paine  wroth  a  statement  concerning  the  $3,000  given  him  (1785)  by  Con- 
gress, which  he  maintained  was  an  indemnity  for  injustice  done  him  in  the 
Deane  case.    Laurens  had  long  been  dead.    The  Committee  consulted  the 

405 


4o6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


The  letters  are  those  of  a  broken-hearted  man,  and 
it  seems  marvellous  that  Jefferson,  Madison,  and 
the  Clintons  did  not  intervene  and  see  that  some 
recognition  of  Paine's  former  services,  by  those  who 
should  not  have  forgotten  them,  was  made  without 
the  ill-judged  memorial.  While  they  were  enjoy- 
ing their  grandeur  the  man  who,  as  Jefferson 
wrote,  "  steadily  laboured,  and  with  as  much  effect 
as  any  man  living,"  to  secure  America  freedom, 
was  living — or  rather  dying — in  a  miserable  lodg- 
ing-house, 63  Partition  Street.  He  had  gone  there 
for  economy ;  for  he  was  exhibiting  that  morbid 
apprehension  about  his  means  which  is  a  well- 
known  symptom  of  decline  in  those  who  have 
suffered  poverty  in  early  life.  Washington,  Vv'ith 
40,000  acres,  wrote  in  his  last  year  as  if  facing 
ruin.  Paine  had  only  a  little  farm  at  New. 
Rochelle.  He  had  for  some  time  suffered  from 
want  of  income,  and  at  last  had  to  sell  the  farm  he 
meant  for  the  Bonnevilles  for  $10,000;  but  the 
purchaser  died,  and  at  his  widow's  appeal  the 
contract  was  cancelled.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
he  appealed  to  Congress.     It  appears,  however. 

President,  whose  reply  I  know  not.  Vice-President  Clinton  wrote  (March 
23,  1S08)  that  "  from  the  information  I  received  at  the  time  I  have  reason 
to  believe  that  Mr.  Paine  accompanied  Col.  Laurens  on  his  mission  to 
France  in  the  course  of  our  revolutionary  war,  for  the  purpose  of  nego- 
tiatinor  a  loan,  and  that  he  acted  as  his  secretary  on  that  occasion  ;  but 
although  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  this  fact,  I  cannot  assert  it  from 
my  own  actual  knowledge."  There  was  nothing  found  on  the  journals  of 
Congress  to  show  Paine's  connection  with  the  mission.  The  old  author  was 
completely  upset  by  his  longing  to  hear  the  fate  of  his  memorial,  and  he 
wrote  two  complaints  of  the  delay,  showing  that  his  nerves  were  shattered. 
"  If,"  he  says,  March  yth,  "  my  memorial  was  referred  to  the  Committee  of 
Claims  for  the  purpose  of  losing  it,  it  is  unmanly  policy.  After  so  many 
years  of  service  my  heart  grows  cold  towards  America." 


DEATH  A^D  RESURRECT/OX. 


that  Paine  was  not  anxious  for  himself,  but  for  the 
family  of  Madame  Bonneville,  whose  statement  on 
thi.s  point  is  important. 

The  last  letter  that  I  can  find  of  Paine's  was 
written  to  Jefferson,  July  8,  1808  : 

"  The  british  Ministry  have  out-schemed  themselves.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  see  what  the  motive  and  object  of  that  Ministry- 
were  in  issuing  the  orders  of  Council.  They  expected  those 
orders  would  force  all  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  to 
England,  and  then,  by  giving  permission  to  such  cargoes  as 
they  did  not  want  for  themselves  to  depart  for  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  to  raise  a  revenue  out  of  those  countries  and  America. 
But  instead  of  this  they  have  lost  revenue  ;  that  is,  they  have 
lost  the  revenue  they  used  to  receive  from  American  imports, 
and  instead  of  gaining  all  the  commerce  they  have  lost  it  all. 

"  This  being  the  case  with  the  british  Ministry  it  is  natural 
to  suppose  they  would  be  glad  to  tread  back  their  steps,  if  they 
could  do  it  without  too  much  exposing  their  ignorance  and 
obstinacy.  The  Embargo  law  empowers  the  President  to  sus- 
pend its  operation  whenever  he  shall  be  satisfied  that  our  ships 
can  pass  in  safety.  It  therefore  includes  the  idea  of  empower- 
ing him  to  use  means  for  arriving  at  that  event.  Suppose  the 
President  were  to  authorise  Mr.  Pinckney  to  propose  to  the 
british  Ministry  that  the  United  States  would  negociate  with 
France  for  rescinding  the  Milan  Decree,  on  condition  the  Eng- 
lish Ministry  would  rescind  their  orders  of  Council ;  and  in  that 
case  the  United  States  would  recall  their  Embargo.  France 
and  England  stand  now  at  such  a  distance  that  neither  can 
propose  any  thing  to  the  other,  neither  are  there  any  neutral 
powers  to  act  as  mediators.  The  U.  S.  is  the  only  power  that 
can  act. 

"Perhaps  the  british  Ministry  if  they  listen  to  the  proposal 
will  want  to  add  to  it  the  Berlin  decree,  which  excludes  english 
commerce  from  the  continent  of  Europe  ;  but  this  we  have 
nothing  to  do  with,  neither  has  it  any  thing  to  do  with  the 
Embargo.  The  british  Orders  of  Council  and  the  Milan  decree 
are  parallel  cases,  and  the  cause  of  the  Embargo.  Yours  in 
friendship." 


4o8 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Fame's  last  letters  to  the  President  are  character- 
istic. One  pleads  for  American  intervention  to  stay 
the  hand  of  French  oppression  among  the  negroes 
in  St.  Domingo';  for  the  colonization  of  Louisiana 
with  free  negro  laborers  ;  and  his  very  last  letter  is 
an  appeal  for  mediation  between  France  and  Eng- 
land for  the  salve  of  peace. 

Nothing  came  of  these  pleadings  of  Paine ;  but 
perhaps  on  his  last  stroll  along  the  Hudson,  with 
his  friend  Fulton,  to  watch  the  little  steamer^  he 
may  have  recognized  the  real  mediator  beginning 
its  labors  for  the  federation  of  the  world. 

Early  in  July,  1808,  Paine  removed  to  a  com- 
fortable abode,  that  of  Mrs.  Ryder,  near  which 
Madame  Bonneville  and  her  two  sons  resided.  The 
house  was  on  Herring  Street  (afterwards  293 
Bleecker),  and  not  far,  he  might  be  pleased  to  find, 
from  "  Reason  Street."  Here  he  made  one  more 
attempt  to  wield  his  pen, — the  result  being  a  brief 
letter  "  To  the  Federal  Faction,"  which  he  warns 
that  they  are  endangering  American  commerce  by 
abusing  France  and  Bonaparte,  provoking  them  to 
establish  a  navigation  act  that  will  exclude  Ameri- 
can ships  from  Europe.  "  The  United  States  have 
flourished,  unrivalled  in  commerce,  fifteen  or  sixteen 
years.  But  it  is  not  a  permanent  state  of  things.  It 
arose  from  the  circumstances  of  the  war,  and  most 
probably  will  change  at  the  close  of  the  present  war. 
The  Federalists  give  provocation  enough  to  pro- 
mote it." 

Apparently  this  is  the  last  letter  Paine  ever  sent 
to  the  printer.  The  year  passed  peacefully  away ; 
indeed  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  from  the  mid- 
dle of  July,  1808,  to  the  end  of  January,  1809,  he 


DEA  TH  AND  RRSUKRF.CTION. 


409 


fairly  enjoyed  existence.  During  this  time  he  made 
acquaintance  with  the  worthy  Willett  Hicks,  watch- 
maker, who  was  a  Quaker  preacher.  His  conversa- 
tions with  Willett  Hicks  —  whose  cousin,  Elias 
Hicks,  became  such  an  important  figure  in  the 
Quaker  Society  twenty  years  later — were  fruitful. 

Seven  serene  months  then  passed  away.  Tow- 
ards the  latter  part  of  January,  1809,  Paine  was  very 
feeble.  On  the  i8th  he  wrote  and  signed  his  Will, 
in  which  he  reaffirms  his  theistic  faith.  On  Feb- 
ruary Tst  the  Committee  of  Claims  reported  un- 
favorably on  his  memorial,  while  recording,  "  That 
Mr.  Paine  rendered  great  and  eminent  services  to 
the  United  States  during  their  struggle  for  liberty 
and  independence  cannot  be  doubted  by  any  person 
acquainted  with  his  labours  in  the  cause,  and  at- 
tached to  the  principles  of  the  contest."  On  Feb- 
ruary 25th  he  had  some  fever,  and  a  doctor  was 
sent  for.  Mrs.  Ryder  attributed  the  attack  to 
Paine's  having  stopped  taking  stimulants,  and  their 
resumption  was  prescribed.  About  a  fortnight 
later  symptoms  of  dropsy  appeared.  Towards  the 
end  of  April  Paine  was  removed  to  a  house  on  the 
spot  now  occupied  by  No.  59  Grove  Street,  Madame 
Bonneville  taking  up  her  abode  under  the  same 
roof.  The  owner  was  William  A.  Thompson,  once 
a  law  partner  of  Aaron  Burr,  whose  wife,  nee  Maria 
Holdron,  was  a  niece  of  Elihu  Palmer.  The  whole 
of  the  back  part  of  the  house  (which  was  in  a  lot,  no 
street  being  then  cut)  was  given  up  to  Paine.'  Re- 
ports of  neglect  of  Paine  by  Madame  Bonneville 


'  The  topographical  facts  were  investigated  by  John  Randel,  Jr.,  Civil 
Engineer,  at  the  request  of  David  C.  Valentine,  Clerk  of  the  Common 
Council,  New  York,  his  report  being  rendered  April  6,  1864. 


410 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PATNE. 


have  been  credited  by  some,  but  are  unfounded. 
She  gave  all  the  time  she  could  to  the  sufferer,  and 
did  her  best  for  him.  Willett  Hicks  sometimes 
called,  and  his  daughter  (afterwards  Mrs.  Cheese- 
man)  used  to  take  Paine  delicacies.  The  only  pro- 
curable nurse  was  a  woman  named  Hedden,  who 
combined  piety  and  artfulness.  Paine's  physician 
was  the  most  distinguished  in  New  York,  Dr.  Ro- 
maine,  but  nurse  Hedden  managed  to  get  into  the 
house  one  Dr.  Manly,  who  turned  out  to  be  Cheet- 
ham's  spy.  Manly  afterwards  contributed  to 
Cheetham's  book  a  lying  letter,  in  which  he  claimed 
to  have  been  Paine's  physician.  It  will  be  seen, 
however,  by  Madame  Bonneville's  narrative  to  Cob- 
bett,  that  Paine  was  under  the  care  of  his  friend,  Dr. 
Romaine.  As  Manly,  assuming  that  he  called  as 
many  did,  never  saw  Paine  alone,  he  was  unable  to 
assert  that  Paine  recanted,  but  he  converted  the  ex- 
clamations of  the  sufferer  into  prayers  to  Christ.^ 
The  god  of  wrath  who  ruled  in  New  York  a 
hundred  years,  through  the  ministerial  prerogatives, 
was  guarded  by  a'  Cerberean  legend.  The  three 
alternatives  of  the  heretic  were,  recantation,  special 
judgment,  terrible  death.    Before  Paine's  arrival 

'  Another  claimant  to  have  been  Paine's  physician  has  been  cited.  In 
1876  (_N.  y.  Observer,  Feb.  17th)  Rev.  Dr.  Wickham  reported  from  a  late 
Dr.  Matson  Smith,  of  New^  Rochelle,  that  he  had  been  Paine's  physician, 
and  witnessed  his  drunkenness.  Unfortunately  for  Wickham  he  makes 
Smith  say  it  was  on  his  farm  where  Paine  "  spent  his  latter  days."  Paine 
was  not  on  his  farm  for  two  years  before  his  death.  Smith  could  never  have 
attended  Paine  unless  in  1803,  when  he  had  a  slight  trouble  with  his  hands, 
— the  only  illness  he  ever  had  at  New  Rochelle, — while  the  guest  of  a  neigh- 
bor, who  attests  his  sobriety.  Finally,  a  friend  of  Dr.  Smith  is  living,  Mr. 
Albert  Willcox,  who  writes  me  his  recollection  of  what  Smith  told  him  of 
Paine.  Neither  drunkenness,  nor  any  item  of  Wickham's  report  is  men- 
tioned.    He  said  Paine  was  afraid  of  death,  but  could  only  have  heard  it. 


DEA  TH  AND  RE^UFKECTION. 


411 


In  America,  the  excitement  on  his  approach  had 
tempted  a  canny  Scot,  Donald  Fraser,  to  write 
an  anticipated  "  Recantation "  for  him,  the  title- 
page  being  cunningly  devised  so  as  to  imply  that 
there  had  been  an  actual  recantation.  On  his 
arrival  in  New  York,  Paine  found  it  necessary  to 
call  Fraser  to  account.  The  Scotchman  pleaded 
that  he  had  vainly  tried  to  earn  a  living  as  fencing- 
master,  preacher,  and  school-teacher,  but  had  got 
eighty  dollars  for  writing  the  "  Recantation." 
Paine  said  :  "  I  am  glad  you  found  the  expedient  a 
successful  shift  for  your  needy  family;  but  write  no 
more  concerning  Thomas  Paine.  I  am  satisfied 
with  your  acknowledgment — try  something  more 
worthy  of  a  man."  '  The  second  mouth  of  Cer- 
berus was  noisy  throughout  the  land  ;  revivalists 
were  describing  in  New  Jersey  how  some  "  infidel" 
had  been  struck  blind  in  Virginia,  and  in  Virginia 
how  one  was  struck  dumb  in  New  Jersey.  But 
here  was  the  very  head  and  front  of  what  they 
called  "  infidelity,"  Thomas  Paine,  who  ought  to 
have  gathered  in  his  side  a  sheaf  of  thunderbolts, 
preserved  by  more  marvellous  "  providences  "  than 
any  sectarian  saint.  Out  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
carried  to  the  guillotine  from  his  prison,  he  alone 
was  saved,  by  the  accident  of  a  chalk  mark 
affixed  to  the  wrong  side  of  his  cell  door.  On 
two  ships  he  prepared  to  return  to  America,  but 
was  prevented  ;  one  sank  at  sea,  the  other  was 
searched  by  the  British  for  him  particularly.  And 
at  the  very  moment  when  New  Rochelle  disciples 
were  calling  down  fire  on  his  head,  Christopher 

'  Dr.  Francis'  "  Old  New  York,"  p.  139, 


412 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Dederick  tried  vainly  to  answer  the  imprecation ; 
within  a  few  feet  of  Paine,  his  gun  only  shattered 
the  window  at  which  the  author  sat.  "  Providence 
must  be  as  bad  as  Thomas  Paine,"  wrote  the  old 
deist.  This  amounted  to  a  sort  of  contest  like  that 
of  old  between  the  prophets  of  Baal  and  those  of 
Jehovah.  The  deists  were  crying  to  their  antago- 
nists :  "  Perchance  he  sleepeth."  It  seemed  a  test 
case.  If  Paine  was  spared,  what  heretic  need 
tremble  ?  But  he  reached  his  threescore  years 
and  ten  in  comfort  ;  and  the  placard  of  Satan 
flying  off  with  him  represented  a  last  hope. 

Skepticism  and  rationalism  were  not  understood 
by  pious  people  a  hundred  years  ago.  In  some 
regions  they  are  not  understood  yet.  Renan  thinks 
he  will  have  his  legend  in  France  modelled  after 
Judas.  But  no  educated  Christian  conceives  of  a 
recantation  or  extraordinary  death-bed  for  a  Dar- 
win, a  Parker,  an  Emerson.  The  late  Mr.  Brad- 
laugh  had  some  fear  that  he  might  be  a  posthumous 
victim  of  the  "infidel's  legend."  In  1875,  when  he 
was  ill  in  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  New  York,  he 
desired  me  to  question  the  physicians  and  nurses, 
that  I  might,  if  necessary,  testify  to  his  fearlessness 
and  fidelity  to  his  views  in  the  presence  of  death. 
But  he  has  died  without  the  "  legend,"  whose 
decline  dates  from  Paine's  case  ;  that  was  its 
crucial  challenge. 

The  whole  nation  had  recently  been  thrown  into 
a  wild  excitement  by  the  fall  of  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton in  a  duel  with  Aaron  Burr.  Hamilton's  world- 
liness  had  been  notorious,  but  the  clergymen 
(Bishop  Moore  and  the  Presbyterian  John  Mason) 


DEATir  AND  RESURRECTION. 


413 


reported  his  dying  words  of  unctuous  piety  and 
orthodoxy.  In  a  pubHc  letter  to  the  Rev.  John 
Mason,  Paine  said  : 

"  Between  you  and  your  rival  in  communion  ceremonies, 
Dr.  Moore  of  the  Episcopal  church,  you  have,  in  order  to 
make  yourselves  appear  of  some  importance,  reduced  General 
Hamilton's  character  to  that  of  a  feeble-minded  man,  who  in 
going  out  of  the  world  wanted  a  passport  from  a  priest. 
Which  of  you  was  first  applied  to  for  this  purpose  is  a  matter 
of  no  consequence.  The  man,  sir,  who  puts  his  trust  and 
confidence  in  God,  that  leads  a  just  and  moral  life,  and 
endeavors  to  do  good,  does  not  trouble  himself  about  priests 
when  his  hour  of  departure  comes,  nor  permit  priests  to 
trouble  themselves  about  him." 

The  words  were  widely  commented  on,  and  both 
sides  looked  forward,  almost  as  if  to  a  prize-fight, 
to  the  hour  when  the  man  who  had  unmade  thrones, 
whether  in  earth  or  heaven,  must  face  the  King  of 
Terrors.  Since  Michael  and  Satan  had  their 
legendary  combat  for  the  body  of  Moses,  there  was 
nothing  like  it.  In  view  of  the  pious  raids  on 
Paine's  death-bed,  freethinkers  have  not  been  quite 
fair.  To  my  own  mind,  some  respect  is  due  to 
those  humble  fanatics,  who  really  believed  that 
Paine  was  approaching  eternal  fires,  and  had  a 
frantic  desire  to  save  him.^ 

Paine  had  no  fear  of  death  ;  Madame  Bonne- 
ville's narrative  shows  that  his  fear  was  rather  of 

'  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  several  liberal  Christians,  like  Hicks, 
were  friendly  towards  Paine  at  the  close  of  his  life,  whereas  his  most 
malignant  enemies  were  of  his  own  "  Painite "  household,  Carver  and 
Cheetham.  Mr.  William  Erving  tells  me  that  he  remembers  an  English 
clergyman  in  New  York,  named  Cunningham,  who  used  to  visit  his 
(Erving's)  father.  He  heard  him  say  that  Paine  and  he  were  friends  ;  and 
that  "  the  whole  fault  was  that  people  hectored  Paine,  and  made  him  say 
things  he  would  never  say  to  those  who  treated  him  as  a  gentleman." 


• 


414 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


living  too  long.  But  he  had  some  such  fear  as 
that  of  Voltaire  when  entering  his  house  at  Fernay 
after  it  began  to  lighten.  He  was  not  afraid  of 
the  lightning;  he  said,  but  of  what  the  neighboring 
priest  would  make  of  it  should  he  be  struck. 
Paine  had  some  reason  to  fear  that  the  zealots 
who  had  placarded  the  devil  flying  away  with  him 
might  fulfil  their  prediction  by  body-snatching. 
His  unwillingness  to  be  left  alone,  ascribed  to 
superstitious  terror,  was  due  to  efforts  to  get  a 
recantation  from  him,  so  determined  that  he  dare 
not  be  without  witnesses.  He  had  foreseen  this. 
While  living  with  Jarvis,  two  years  before,  he  desired 
him  to  bear  witness  that  he  maintained  his  theistic 
convictions  to  the  last.  Jarvis  merrily  proposed 
that  he  should  make  a  sensation  by  a  mock  recan- 
tation, but  the  author  said,  "Tom  Paine  never  told 
a  lie."  When  he  knew  that  his  illness  was  mortal 
he  solemnly  reaffirmed  these  opinions  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Madame  Bonneville,  Dr.  Romaine,  Mr. 
Haskin,  ■  Captain  Pelton,  and  Thomas  Nixon.' 
The  nurse  Hedden,  if  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Bos- 
ton (Fenwick)  remembered  accurately  thirty-seven 
years  later,  must  have  conspired  to  get  him  into 
the  patient's  room,  from  which,  of  course,  he  was 
stormily  expelled.  But  the  Bishop's  story  is  so 
like  a  pious  novelette  that,  in  the  absence  of  any 
mention  of  his  visit  by  Madame  Bonneville,  herself 
a  Catholic,  one  cannot  be  sure  that  the  interview 
he  waited  so  long  to  report  did  not  take  place  in 
some  slumberous  episcopal  chamber  in  Boston.^ 

'  See  the  certificate  of  Nixon  and  Pelton  to  Cobbett  (Vale,  p.  177). 

'  Bishop  Fenwick's  narrative  {U.  S.  Catholic  Magazine,  1846)  is  quoted  in 
the  N.  V.  Observer,  September  27,  1877.  (Extremes  become  friends  when 
a  freethinker  is  to  be  crucified.) 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION. 


It  was  rumored  that  Paine's  adherents  were 
keeping  him  under  the  influence  of  liquor  in  order 
that  he  might  not  recant, — so  convinced,  at  heart, 
or  enamoured  of  Calvinism  was  this  martyr  of 
Theism,  who  had  published  his  "  Age  of  Reason  " 
from  the  prison  where  he  awaited  the  guillotine.' 

Of  what  his  principles  had  cost  him  Paine  had 
near  his  end  a  reminder  that  cut  him  to  the  heart. 
Albert  Gallatin  had  remained  his  friend,  but  his 
connections,  the  Fews  and  Nicholsons,  had  ignored 
the  author  they  once  idolized.  The  woman  for 
whom  he  had  the  deepest  affection,  in  America, 
had  been  Kitty  Nicholson,  now  Mrs.  Few.  Henry 
Adams,  in  his  biography  of  Gallatin,  says  :  "  When 
confined  to  his  bed  with  his  last  illness  he  [Paine] 
sent  for  Mrs.  Few,  who  came  to  see  him,  and  when 
they  parted  she  spoke  some  words  of  comfort  and 
religious  hope.  Poor  Paine  only  turned  his  face 
to  the  wall,  and  kept  silence."  What  is  Mr. 
Adams'  authority  for  this  ?  According  to  Rick- 
man,  Shervvin,  and  Vale,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Few  came 
of  their  own  accord,  and  "  Mrs.  Few  expressed  a 
wish  to  renew  their  former  friendship."  Paine  said 
to  her,  "very  impressively,  '  You  have  neglected 
me,  and  I  beg  that  you  will  leave  the  room.'  Mrs. 
Few  went  into  the  garden  and  wept  bitterly."  I 
doubt  this  tradition  also,  but  it  was  cruelly  tantali- 

'  Engineer  Randel  (orthodox),  in  his  topographical  report  to  the  Clerk  of 
the  City  Council  (1864),  mentions  that  the  "  very  worthy  mechanic,"  Amasa 
Wordsworth,  who  saw  Paine  daily,  told  him  "there  was  no  truth  in  such 
report,  and  that  Thomas  Paine  had  declined  saying  anything  on  that 
subject  [religion]."  "  Paine,"  testifies  Dr.  Francis,  "  clung  to  his  infidelity 
to  the  last  moment  of  his  natural  life."  Dr.  Francis  (orthodox)  heard  that 
Paine  yielded  to  King  Alcohol,  but  says  Cheetham  wrote  with  "settled 
malignity,"  and  suspects  "  sinister  motives"  in  his  "  strictures  on  the  fruits, 
of  unbelief  in  the  degradation  of  the  wretched  Paine." 


4i6 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


zing  for  his  early  friend,  after  ignoring  him  six 
years,  to  return  with  Death. 

If,  amid  tortures  of  this  kind,  the  annoyance  of 
fanatics  and  the  "Painites"  who  came  to  watch 
them,  and  the  paroxysms  of  pain,  the  sufferer 
found  rehef  in  stimulants,  the  present  writer  can 
only  reflect  with  satisfaction  that  such  resource 
existed.  For  some  time  no  food  would  stay  on  his 
stomach.  In  such  weakness  and  helplessness  he 
was  for  a  week  or  so  almost  as  miserable  as  the 
Christian  spies  could  desire,  and  his  truest  friends 
were  not  sorrowful  when  the  peace  of  death 
approached.  After  the  years  in  which  the  stories 
of  Paine's  wretched  end  have  been  accumulating, 
now  appears  the  testimony  of  the  Catholic  lady, — 
persons  who  remember  Madame  Bonneville  assure 
me  that  she  was  a  perfect  lady, — that  Paine's  mind 
was  active  to  the  last,  that  shortly  before  death 
he  made  a  humorous  retort  to  Dr.  Romaine,  that 
he  died  after  a  tranquil  night. 

Paine  died  at  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
June  8,  1809.  Shortly  before,  two  clergymen  had 
invaded  his  room,  and  so  soon  as  they  spoke  about 
his  opinions  Paine  said  :  "  Let  me  alone  ;  good 
morning!"  Madame  Bonneville  asked  if  he  was 
satisfied  with  the  treatment  he  had  received  in  her 
house,  and  he  said  "  Oh  yes."  These  were  the  last 
words  of  Thomas  Paine. 

On  June  loth  Paine's  friends  assembled  to  look 
on  his  face  for  the  last  time.  Madame  Bonneville 
took  a  rose  from  her  breast  and  laid  it  on  that  of 
her  dead  benefactor.  His  adherents  were  busy 
men,  and  mostly  poor ;  they  could  not  undertake 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION. 


the  then  difficult  journey  (nearly  twenty-five  miles) 
to  the  grave  beyond  New  Rochelle.  Of  the  cor- 
tege that  followed  Paine  a  contemptuous  account 
was  printed  (Aug.  7th)  in  the  London  Packet  : 

"  Extract  of  a  letter  dated  June  20th,  Philadelphia,  written 
by  a  gentleman  lately  returned  from  a  tour  :  '  On  my  return 
from  my  journey,  when  I  arrived  near  Harlem,  on  York 
island,  I  met  the  funeral  of  Tom  Paine  on  the  road.  It  was 
going  on  to  East  Chester.  The  followers  were  two  negroes, 
the  next  a  carriage  with  six  drunken  Irishmen,  then  a  riding 
chair  with  two  men  in  it,  one  of  whom  was  asleep,  and  then  an 
Irish  Quaker  on  horseback.  I  stopped  my  sulkey  to  ask  the 
Quaker  what  funeral  it  was  ;  he  said  it  was  Paine,  and  that 
his  friends  as  well  as  his  enemies  were  all  glad  that  he  was 
gone,  for  he  had  tired  his  friends  out  by  his  intemperance  and 
frailties.  I  told  him  that  Paine  had  done  a  great  deal  of  mis- 
chief in  the  world,  and  that,  if  there  was  any  purgatory,  he 
certainly  would  have  a  good  share  of  it  before  the  devil  would 
let  him  go.  The  Quaker  replied,  he  would  sooner  take  his 
chance  with  Paine  than  any  man  in  New  York,  on  that  score. 
He  then  put  his  horse  on  a  trot,  and  left  me.'  " 

The  funeral  was  going  to  West  Chester ;  one  of 
the  vehicles  contained  Madame  Bonneville  and  her 
children  ;  and  the  Quaker  was  not  an  Irishman.  I 
have  ascertained  that  a  Quaker  did  follow  Paine, 
and  that  itwas  Willett  Hicks.  Hicks,  who  has  left 
us  his  testimony  that  Paine  was  "  a  good  man,  and 
an  honest  man,"  may  have  said  that  Paine's  friends 
were  glad  that  he  was  gone,  for  itwas  only  humane 
to  so  feel,  but  all  said  about  "  intemperance  and 
frailties  "  is  doubtless  a  gloss  of  the  correspondent, 
like  the  "drunken  Irishmen"  substituted  for  Ma- 
dame Bonneville  and  her  family. 

Could  the  gentleman  of  the  sulky  have  appre- 
ciated the  historic  dignity  of  that  little  cortege  he 

VOL.  II. — 27 


4i8 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


would  have  turned  his  horse's  head  and  followed 
it.  Those  two  negroes,  travelling  twenty-five  miles 
on  foot,  represented  the  homage  of  a  race  for  whose 
deliverance  Paine  had  pleaded  from  his  first  essay 
written  in  America  to  his  recent  entreaty  for  the 
President's  intervention  in  behalf  of  the  slaughtered 
negroes  of  Domingo/  One  of  those  vehicles  bore 
the  wife  of  an  oppressed  French  author,  and  her 
sons,  one  of  whom  was  to  do  gallant  service  to  this 
country  in  the  War  of  1812,  the  other  to  explore  the 
unknown  West.  Behind  the  Quaker  preacher,  who 
would  rather  take  his  chance  in  the  next  world  with 
Paine  than  with  any  man  in  New  York,  was  follow- 
ing invisibly  another  of  his  family  and  name,  who 
presently  built  up  Hicksite  Quakerism,  the  real 
monument  of  Paine,  to  whom  unfriendly  Friends 
refused  a  grave. 

The  grand  people  of  America  were  not  there,  the 
clergy  were  not  there  ;  but  beside  the  negroes  stood 
the  Quaker  preacher  and  the  French  Catholic 
woman.  Madame  Bonneville  placed  her  son  Ben- 
jamin— afterwards  General  in  the  United  States 
army — at  one  end  of  the  grave,  and  standing  her- 
self at  the  other  end,  cried,  as  the  earth  fell  on  the 
cofifin  :  "  Oh,  Mr.  Paine,  my  son  stands  here  as 
testimony  of  the  gratitude  of  America,  and  I  for 
France  !  "  ~' 

'  "  On  the  last  day  men  shall  wear 
On  their  heads  the  dust, 
As  ensign  and  as  ornament 
Of  their  lowly  trust." — Hafiz. 

'  No  sooner  was  Paine  dead  than  the  ghoul  sat  gloating  upon  him.  I 
found  in  the  Rush  papers  a  letter  from  Cheetham  (July  31st)  to  Benjamin 
Rush  :  "  Since  Mr.  Paine's  arrival  in  this  city  from  Washington,  when  on 
his  way  you  very  properly  avoided  him,  his  life,  keeping  the  lowest  com- 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION. 


419 


The  clay  of  Paine's  death  was  a  day  of  judgment. 
He  had  not  been  struck  blind  or  dumb  ;  Satan  had 
not  carried  him  off  ;  he  had  lived  beyond  his  three- 
score years  and  ten  and  died  peacefully  in  his  bed. 
The  self-appointed  messengers  of  Zeus  had  man- 
aeed  to  vex  this  Prometheus  who  brou^jht  fire  to 
men.  but  could  not  persuade  him  to  whine  for 
mercy,  nor  did  the  predicted  thunderbolts  come. 
This  immunity  of  Thomas  Paine  brought  the  deity 
of  dogma  into  a  dilemma.  It  could  be  explained 
only  on  the  the  theory  of  an  apology  made  and 
accepted  by  the  said  deity.  Plainly  there  had  to  be 
a  recantation  somewhere.  Either  Paine  had  to 
recant  or  Dogfma  had  to  recant. 

The  excitement  was  particularly  strong  among 

pany,  has  been  an  uninterrupted  scene  of  filth,  vulgarity,  and  drunkenness. 
As  to  the  reports,  that  on  his  deathbed  he  had  something  like  compunctious 
visitings  of  conscience  with  regard  to  his  deistical  writings  and  opinions, 
they  are  altogether  groundless.  He  resisted  very  angrily,  and  with  a  sort  of 
triumphant  and  obstinate  pride,  all  attempts  to  draw  him  from  those  doc- 
trines. Much  as  you  must  have  seen  in  the  course  of  your  professional 
practice  of  everything  that  is  offensive  in  the  poorest  and  most  depraved  of 
the  species,  perhaps  you  have  met  with  nothing  excelling  the  miserable  con- 
dition of  Mr.  Paine.  He  had  scarcely  any  visitants.  It  may  indeed  be  said 
that  he  was  totally  neglected  and  forgotten.  Even  Mrs.  Bournville  \sic\,  a 
woman,  I  cannot  say  a  Lady,  whom  he  brought  with  him  from  Paris,  the 
wife  of  a  Parisian  of  that  name,  seemed  desirous  of  hastening  his  death.  He 
died  at  Greenwich,  in  a  small  room  he  had  hired  in  a  very  obscure  house. 
He  was  hurried  to  his  grave  with  hardly  an  attending  person.  An  ill- 
natured  epitaph,  written  on  him  in  1796,  when  it  was  supposed  he  was  dead, 
very  correctly  describes  the  latter  end  of  his  life.  He 

"  Blasphemes  the  Almighty,  lives  in  filth  like  a  hog, 
Is  abandoned  in  death  and  interr'd  like  a  dog." 

The  object  of  this  letter  was  to  obtain  from  Rush,  for  publication,  some 
abuse  of  Paine  ;  but  the  answer  honored  Paine,  save  for  his  heresy,  and  is 
quoted  by  freethinkers  as  a  tribute. 

Within  a  year  the  grave  opened  for  Cheetham  also,  and  he  sank  into  it 
branded  by  the  law  as  the  slanderer  of  a  woman's  honor,  and  scourged  by 
the  community  as  a  traitor  in  public  life. 


420 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


the  Quakers,  who  regarded  Paine  as  an  apostate 
Quaker,  and  perhaps  felt  compromised  by  his  de- 
sire to  be  buried  among  them.  Willett  Hicks  told 
Gilbert  Vale  that  he  had  been  beset  by  pleading  ques- 
tions. "  Did  thee  never  hear  him  call  on  Christ  ?  " 
"  As  for  money,"  said  Hicks,  "  I  could  have  had 
any  sum."  There  was  found,  later  on,  a  Quakeress, 
formerly  a  servant  in  the  family  of  Willett  Hicks, 
not  proof  against  such  temptations.  She  pretended 
that  she  was  sent  to  carry  some  delicacy  to  Paine, 
and  heard  him  cry  "  Lord  Jesus  have  mercy  upon 
me  "  ;  she  also  heard  him  declare  "  if  the  Devil  has 
ever  had  any  agency  in  any  work  he  has  had  it  in 
my  writing  that  book  [the  *  Age  of  Reason  ']."  ^ 
Few  souls  are  now  so  belated  as  to  credit  such 
stories  ;  but  my  readers  may  form  some  conception 
of  the  mental  condition  of  the  community  in  which 
Paine  died  from  the  fact  that  such  absurdities 
were  printed,  believed,  spread  through  the  world. 
The  Quaker  servant  became  a  heroine,  as  the 
one  divinely  appointed  witness  of  Tom  Paine's 
recantation. 

'  "  Life  and  Gospel  Labors  of  Stephen  Grellet."  This  "  valuable  young 
rriend, "  as  Stephen  Grellet  calls  her,  had  married  a  Quaker  named  Hinsdale. 
Grellet,  a  native  of  France,  convert  from  Voltaire,  led  the  anti-Hicksites, 
and  was  led  by  his  partisanship  to  declare  that  Elias  promised  him  to  suppress 
his  opinions  !  The  cant  of  the  time  was  that  ' '  deism  might  do  to  live  by  but 
not  to  die  by."  But  it  had  been  announced  in  Paine's  obituaries  that  "  some 
days  previous  to  his  demise  he  had  an  interview  with  some  Quaker  gentlemen 
on  the  subject  [of  burial  in  their  graveyard]  but  as  he  declined  a  renunciation 
of  his  deistical  opinions  his  anxious  wishes  were  not  complied  with."  But 
ten  years  later,  when  Hick's  deism  was  spreading,  death-bed  terrors  seemed 
desirable,  and  Mary  (Roscoe)  Hinsdale,  formerly  Grellet's  servant  also,  came 
forward  to  testify  that  the  recantation  refused  by  Paine  to  the  "  Quaker 
gentlemen,"  even  for  a  much  desired  end,  had  been  previously  confided  to 
her  for  no  object  at  all  !  The  story  was  published  by  one  Charles  Collins,  a 
Quaker,  who  afterwards  admitted  to  Gilbert  Vale  his  doubts  of  its  truth, 
adding  "  some  of  our  friends  believe  she  indulges  in  opiates  "  (Vale,  p.  i86). 


DEATH  AKD  RESURRECTION. 


421 


But  in  the  end  it  was  that  same  Mary  that 
hastened  the  resurrection  of  Thomas  Paine.  The 
controversy  as  to  whether  Mary  was  or  was  not  a 
cahimniator  ;  whether  orthodoxy  was  so  irresistible 
that  Paine  must  needs  surrender  at  last  to  a  servant- 
girl  who  told  him  she  had  thrown  his  book  into  the 
fire  ;  whether  she  was  to  be  believed  against  her 
employer,  who  declared  she  never  saw  Paine  at  all ; 
all  this  kept  Paine  alive.  Such  boiling  up  from  the 
abysses,  of  vulgar  credulity,  grotesque  superstition, 
such  commanding  illustrations  of  the  Age  of  Un- 
reason, disgusted  thoughtful  Christians.' 

Such  was  the  religion  which  was  supposed  by 
some  to  have  won  Paine's  heart  at  last,  but  which, 
when  mirrored  in  the  controversy  over  his  death, 
led  to  a  tremendous  reaction.    The  division  in  the 

'  The  excitement  of  the  time  was  well  illustrated  in  a  notable  caricature  by 
the  brilliant  artist  John  Wesley  Jarvis.  Paine  is  seen  dead,  his  pillow 
"  Common  Sense,"  his  hand  holding  a  manuscript,  "  A  rap  on  the  knuckles 
for  John  Mason."  On  his  arm  is  the  label,  "Answer  to  Bishop  Watson." 
Under  him  is  written  :  "A  man  who  devoted  his  whole  life  to  the  attain- 
ment of  two  objects — rights  of  man  and  freedom  of  conscience — had  his  vote 
denied  when  living,  and  was  denied  a  grave  when  dead  !  "  The  Catholic 
Father  O'Brian  (a  notorious  drunkard),  with  very  red  nose,  kneels  over 
Paine,  exclaiming,  "  Oh  you  ugly  drunken  beast  !  "  The  Rev.  John  Mason 
(Presbyterian)  stamps  on  Paine,  exclaiming,  "  Ah,  Tom  !  Tom  !  thou  'It  get 
thy  frying  in  hell  ;  they  '11  roast  thee  like  a  herring. 

"  They  '11  put  thee  in  the  furnace  hot. 
And  on  thee  bar  the  door  : 
How  the  devils  all  will  laugh 
To  hear  thee  burst  and  roar  !  " 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Livingston  kicks  at  Paine's  head,  exclaiming,  "  How  are  the 
mighty  fallen.  Right  fol-de-riddle-lol  !  "  Bishop  Hobart  kicks  the  feet, 
singing  : 

"  Right  fol-de-rol,  let 's  dance  and  sing, 
Tom  is  dead,  God  save  the  king — 
The  infidel  now  low  doth  lie — 

Sing  Hallelujah — hallelujah  !  " 

A  Quaker  turns  away  with  a  shovel,  saying,  "  I  '11  not  bury  thee." 


422 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Quaker  Society  swiftly  developed.  In  December, 
1826,  there  was  an  afternoon  meeting  of  Quakers 
of  a  critical  kind,  some  results  of  which  led  directly 
to  the  separation.  The  chief  speaker  was  Elias 
Hicks,  but  it  is  also  recorded  that  "  Willet  Hicks 
was  there,  and  had  a  short  testimony,  which  seemed 
to  be  impressive  on  the  meeting."  He  had  stood 
in  silence  beside  the  grave  of  the  man  whose 
chances  in  the  next  world  he  had  rather  take  than 
those  of  any  man  in  New  York ;  but  now  the 
silence  is  broken.' 

I  told  Walt  Whitman,  himself  partly  a  product  of 
Hicksite  Quakerism,  of  the  conclusion  to  which  I 
had  been  steadily  drawn,  that  Thomas  Paine  rose 
again  in  Elias  Hicks,  and  was  in  some  sort  the 
origin  of  our  one  American  religion.  I  said  my 
visit  was  mainly  to  get  his  "  testimony  "  on  the  sub- 
ject for  my  book,  as  he  was  born  in  Hicks'  region, 
and  mentions  in  "  Specimen  Days  "  his  acquaintance 
with  Paine's  friend,  Colonel  Fellows.  Walt  said, 
for  I  took  down  his  words  at  the  time  : 

"  In  my  childhood  a  great  deal  was  said  of  Paine  in  our  neigh- 
borhood, in  Long  Island.    My  father,  Walter  Whitman,  was 

'  Curiously  enough,  Mary  (Roscoe)  Hinsdale  turned  up  again.  She  had 
broken  down  under  the  cross-examination  of  William  Cobbett,  but  he  had 
long  been  out  of  the  country  when  the  Quaker  separation  took  place.  Mary 
now  reported  that  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Hicksite  Society,  Mary 
Lockwood,  had  recanted  in  the  same  way  as  Paine.  This  being  proved 
false,  the  hysterical  Mary  sank  and  remained  in  oblivion,  from  which  she  is 
recalled  only  by  the  Rev.  Rip  Van  Winkle.  It  was  the  unique  sentence  on 
Paine  to  recant  and  yet  be  damned.  This  honor  belies  the  indifference 
expressed  in  the  rune  taught  children  sixty  years  ago  : 
"  Poor  Tom  Paine  !  there  he  lies  : 

Nobody  laughs  and  nobody  cries  : 

Where  he  has  gone  or  how  he  fares. 

Nobody  knows  and  nobody  cares  !  " 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION. 


rather  favorable  to  Paine.  I  remember  hearing  Elias  Hicks 
preach  ;  and  his  look,  slender  figure,  earnestness,  made  an  im- 
pression on  me,  though  I  was  only  about  eleven.  He  died  in 
1830.  He  is  well  represented  in  the  bust  there,  one  of  my 
treasures.  I  was  a  young  man  when  I  enjoyed  the  friendship 
of  Col.  Fellows, — then  a  constable  of  the  courts  ;  tall,  with 
ruddy  face,  blue  eyes,  snowy  hair,  and  a  fine  voice  ;  neat  in 
dress,  an  old-school  gentleman,  with  a  military  air,  who  used  to 
awe  the  crowd  by  his  looks  ;  they  used  to  call  him  *  Aristides.' 
I  used  to  chat  with  him  in  Tammany  Hall.  It  was  a  time  when, 
in  religion,  there  was  as  yet  no  philosophical  middle-ground  ; 
people  were  very  strong  on  one  side  or  the  other  ;  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  lying,  and  the  liars  were  often  well  paid  for  their 
Avork.  Paine  and  his  principles  made  the  great  issue.  Paine 
was  double-damnably  lied  about.  Col.  Fellows  was  a  man  of 
perfect  truth  and  exactness  ;  he  assured  me  that  the  stories  dis- 
paraging to  Paine  personally  were  quite  false.  Paine  was 
neither  drunken  nor  filthy  ;  he  drank  as  other  people  did,  and 
was  a  high-minded  gentleman.  I  incline  to  think  you  right  in 
supposing  a  connection  between  the  Paine  excitement  and  the 
Hicksite  movement.  Paine  left  a  deep,  clear-cut  impression  on 
the  public  mind.  Col.  Fellows  told  me  that  while  Paine  was  in 
New  York  he  had  a  much  larger  following  than  was  generally 
supposed.  After  his  death  a  reaction  in  his  favor  appeared 
among  many  who  had  opposed  him,  and  this  reaction  became 
exceedingly  strong  between  1820  and  1830,  when  the  division 
among  the  Quakers  developed.  Probably  William  Cobbett's 
conversion  to  Paine  had  something  to  do  with  it.  Cobbett 
lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Elias  Hicks,  in  Long  Island,  and 
probably  knew  him.  Hicks  was  a  fair-minded  man,  and  no 
doubt  read  Paine's  books  carefully  and  honestly.  I  am  very 
glad  you  are  writing  the  Life  of  Paine.  Such  a  book  has  long 
been  needed.    Paine  was  among  the  best  and  truest  of  men." 

Paine's  risen  soul  went  marching  on  in  England 
also.  The  pretended  recantation  proclaimed  there 
was  exploded  by  William  Cobbett,  and  the  whole 
controversy  over  Paine's  works  renewed.  One 
after  another  deist  was  sent  to  prison  for  publishing 


424 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Paine's  works,  the  last  being  Richard  CarHle  and 
his  wife.  In  1819,  the  year  in  which  WiUiam  Cob- 
bett  carried  Paine's  bones  to  England,  Richard 
Carlile  and  his  wife,  solely  for  this  offence,  were 
sent  to  prison, — he  for  three  years,  with  fine  of 
;^i,500,  she  for  two  years,  with  fine  of  ^500/  This 
was  a  suicidal  victory  for  bigotry.  When  these  two 
came  out  of  prison  they  found  that  wealthy  gentle- 
men had  provided  for  them  an  establishment  in 
Fleet  Street,  where  these  books  were  thenceforth 
sold  unmolested.  Mrs.  Carlile's  petition  to  the 
House  of  Commons  awakened  that  body  and  the 
whole  country.  When  Richard  Carlile  entered 
prison  it  was  as  a  captive  deist ;  when  he  came  out 
the  freethinkers  of  England  were  generally 
atheists. 

But  what  was  this  atheism  ?  Merely  another 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Common  sense 
and  common  justice  were  entering  into  religion  as 
they  were  entering  into  government.  Such  epi- 
thets as  "  atheism,"  "  infidelity,"  were  but  labels  of 
outlawry  which  the  priesthood  of  all  denominations 

'  I  have  before  me  an  old  fly-leaf  picture,  issued  by  Carlile  in  the  same 
year.  It  shows  Paine  in  his  chariot  advancing  against  Superstition. 
Superstition  is  a  snaky-haired  demoness,  with  poison-cup  in  one  hand  and 
dagger  in  the  other,  surrounded  by  instruments  of  torture,  and  treading  on 
a  youth.  Behind  her  are  priests,  with  mask,  crucifix,  and  dagger.  Burning 
faggots  surround  them  with  a  cloud,  behind  which  are  worshippers  around 
an  idol,  with  a  priest  near  by,  upholding  a  crucifix  before  a  man  burning  at 
the  stake.  Attended  by  fair  genii,  who  uphold  a  banner  inscribed,  "  Moral 
Rectitude."  Paine  advances,  uplifting  in  one  hand  the  mirror  of  Truth,  in 
the  other  his  "  Age  of  Reason."  There  are  ten  stanzas  describing  the  con- 
flict, Superstition  being  described  as  holding 

"  in  vassalage  a  doating  World, 
Till  Paine  and  Reason  burst  upon  the  mind. 
And  Truth  and  Deism  their  flag  unfurled." 


DEA  TIT  AND  RESUKK RCTION. 


425 


pronounced  upon  men  who  threatened  their  throne, 
precisely  as  "  sedition  "  was  the  label  of  outlawry 
fixed  by  Pitt  on  all  hostility  to  George  III.  In  Eng- 
land, atheism  was  an  insurrection  of  justice  against 
any  deity  diabolical  enough  to  establish  the  reign  of 
terror  in  that  country  or  any  deity  worshipped  by 
a  church  which  imprisoned  men  for  their  opinions. 
Paine  was  a  theist,  but  he  arose  legitimately  in  his 
admirer  Shelley,  who  was  punished  for  atheism. 
Knightly  service  was  done  by  Shelley  in  the  strug- 
gle for  the  Englishman's  right  to  read  Paine.  If 
any  enlightened  religious  man  of  to-day  had  to 
choose  between  the  godlessness  of  Shelley  and  the 
godliness  that  imprisoned  good  men  for  their  opin- 
ions, he  would  hardly  select  the  latter.  The  genius 
of  Paine  was  in  every  word  of  Shelley's  letter  to 
Lord  Ellenborough  on  the  punishment  of  Eaton 
for  publishing  the  "  Age  of  Reason."  ' 

In  America  "atheism"  was  never  anything  but 
the  besom  which  again  and  again  has  cleared  the 

'  "  Whence  is  any  right  derived,  but  that  which  power  confers,  for  per- 
secution ?  Do  you  think  to  convert  Mr.  Eaton  to  your  religion  by  embit- 
tering his  existence  ?  You  might  force  him  by  torture  to  profess  your 
tenets,  but  he  could  not  believe  them  except  you  should  make  them  credi- 
ble, which  perhaps  exceeds  your  power.  Do  you  think  to  please  the  God 
you  worship  by  this  exhibition  of  your  zeal  ?  If  so  the  demon  to  whom 
some  nations  offer  human  hecatombs  is  less  barbarous  than  the  Deity  of 
civilized  society.  .  .  .  Does  the  Christian  God,  whom  his  followers 
eulogize  as  the  deity  of  humility  and  peace — he,  the  regenerator  of  the 
world,  the  meek  reformer — authorise  one  man  to  rise  against  another,  and, 
because  lictors  are  at  his  beck,  to  chain  and  torture  him  as  an  infidel  ? 
When  the  Apostles  went  abroad  to  convert  the  nations,  were  they  enjoined 
to  stab  and  poison  all  who  disbelieved  the  divinity  of  Christ's  mission  ?  .  .  . 
The  time  is  rapidly  approaching — I  hope  that  you,  my  Lord,  may  live  to 
behold  its  arrival — when  the  Mahometan,  the  Jew,  the  Christian,  the 
Deist,  and  the  Atheist  will  live  together  in  one  community,  equally  sharing 
the  benefits  which  arrive  from  its  association,  and  united  in  the  bonds  of 
charity  and  brotherly  love." 


426 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


human  mind  of  phantasms  represented  in  out- 
rages on  honest  thinkers.  In  Paine's  time  the 
phantasm  which  was  called  Jehovah  represented  a 
grossly  ignorant  interpretation  of  the  Bible ;  the 
revelation  of  its  monstrous  character,  represented 
in  the  hatred,  slander,  falsehood,  meanness,  and 
superstition,  which  Jarvis  represented  as  crows  and 
vultures  hovering  near  the  preachers  kicking 
Paine's  dead  body,  necessarily  destroyed  the  phan- 
tasm, whose  pretended  power  was  proved  nothing 
more  than  that  of  certain  men  to  injure  a  man  who 
out-reasoned  them.  Paine's  fidelity  to  his  un- 
answered argument  was  fatal  to  the  consecrated 
phantasm.  It  was  confessed  to  be  ruling  without 
reason,  right,  or  humanity,  like  the  King  from 
whom  "  Common  Sense,"  mainly,  had  freed 
America,  and  not  by  any  "  Grace  of  God  "  at  all, 
but  through  certain  reverend  Lord  Norths  and 
Lord  Howes.  Paine's  peaceful  death,  the  benevo- 
lent distribution  of  his  property  by  a  will  affirming 
his  Theism,  represented  a  posthumous  and  potent 
conclusion  to  the  "Age  of  Reason." 

Paine  had  aimed  to  form  in  New  York  a  Society 
for  Religious  Inquiry,  also  a  Society  of  Theophilan- 
thropy.  The  latter  was  formed,  and  his  post- 
humous works  first  began  to  appear,  shortly  after 
his  death,  in  an  organ  called  The  Theophilanthro- 
pist.  But  his  movement  was  too  cosmopolitan  to 
be  contained  in  any  local  organization.  "  Thomas 
Paine,"  said  President  Andrew  Jackson  to  Judge 
Hertell,  "  Thomas  Paine  needs  no  monument 
made  by  hands  ;  he  has  erected  a  monument  in 
the  hearts  of  all  lovers  of  liberty."    The  like  may 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION. 


427 


be  said  of  his  religion  :  Theophilanthropy,  under  a 
hundred  translations  and  forms,  is  now  the  fruitful 
branch  of  every  religion  and  every  sect.  The  real 
cultivators  of  skepticism, — those  who  ascribe  to 
deity  biblical  barbarism,  and  the  savagery  of  na- 
ture,— have  had  their  day. 

The  removal  and  mystery  of  Paine's  bones  ap- 
pear like  some  page  of  Mosaic  mythology.'  An 
English  caricature  pictured  Cobbett  seated  on 
Paine's  cofifin,  in  a  boat  named  Rights  of  Man, 
rowed  by  Negro  Slaves. 

"  A  singular  coincidence  [says  Dr.  Francis]  led  me  to  pay 
a  visit  to  Cobbett  at  his  country  seat,  within  a  couple  of 
miles  of  the  city,  on  the  island,  on  the  very  day  that  he  had 
exhumed  the  bones  of  Paine,  and  shipped  them  for  England. 
I  will  here  repeat  the  words  which  Cobbett  gave  utterance  to 
at  the  friendly  interview  our  party  had  with  him.  '  I  have 
just  performed  a  duty,  gentlemen,  which  has  been  too  long 
delayed  :  you  have  neglected  too  long  the  remains  of  Thomas 
Paine.  I  have  done  myself  the  honor  to  disinter  his  bones. 
I  have  removed  them  from  New  Rochelle.  I  have  dug  them 
up  ;  they  are  now  on  their  way  to  England.  When  I  myself 
return,  I  shall  cause  them  to  speak  the  common  sense  of  the 

'  The  bones  of  Thomas  Paine  were  landed  in  Liverpool  November  21, 
1819.  The  monument  contemplated  by  Cobbett  was  never  raised.  There 
was  much  parliamentary  and  municipal  excitement.  A  Bolton  town-crier 
was  imprisoned  nine  weeks  for  proclaiming  the  arrival.  In  1836  the  bones 
passed  with  Cobbett's  effects  into  the  hands  of  a  Receiver  (West).  The  Lord 
Chancellor  refusing  to  regard  them  as  an  asset,  they  were  kept  by  an  old  day- 
laborer  until  1844,  when  they  passed  to  B.  Tilley,  13  Bedford  Square,  Lon- 
don, a  furniture  dealer.  In  1849  the  empty  coffin  was  in  possession  of  J. 
Chennell,  Guildford.  The  silver  plate  bore  the  inscription  "  Thomas  Paine, 
died  June  8,  1809,  aged  72."  In  1854,  Rev.  R.  Ainslie  (Unitarian)  told  E. 
Truelove  that  he  owned  "  the  skull  and  the  right  hand  of  Thomas  Paine," 
but  evaded  subsequent  inquiries.  The  removal  caused  excitement  in  Amer- 
ica. Of  Paine's  gravestone  the  last  fragment  was  preserved  by  his  friends  of 
the  Bayeaux  family,  and  framed  on  their  wall.  In  November,  1839,  '^he 
present  marble  monument  at  New  Rochelle  was  erected. 


428 


THE  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


great  man  ;  I  shall  gather  together  the  people  of  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  in  one  assembly  with  those  of  London,  and 
those  bones  will  effect  the  reformation  of  England  in  Church 
and  State.'  " 

Mr.  Badeau,  of  New  Rochelle,  remembers 
standing  near  Cobbett's  workmen  while  they  were 
digging  up  the  bones,  about  dawn.  There  is  a 
legend  that  Paine's  little  finger  was  left  in  America, 
a  fable,  perhaps,  of  his  once  small  movement,  now 
stronger  than  the  loins  of  the  bigotry  that  refused 
him  a  vote  or  a  grave  in  the  land  he  so  greatly 
served.  As  to  his  bones,  no  man  knows  the  place 
of  their  rest  to  this  day.  His  principles  rest  not. 
His  thoughts,  untraceable  like  his  dust,  are  blown 
about  the  world  which  he  held  in  his  heart.  For  a 
hundred  years  no  human  being  has  been  born  in 
the  civilized  world  without  some  spiritual  tincture 
from  that  heart  whose  every  pulse  was  for  human- 
ity, whose  last  beat  broke  a  fetter  of  fear,  and  fell 
on  the  throne  of  thrones. 


APPENDIX  A. 


THE  COBBETT  PAPERS. 

In  the  autumn  of  1 792  William  Cobbett  arrived 
in  America.  Among  the  papers  preserved  by  the 
family  of  Thomas  Jefferson  is  a  letter  from  Cobbett, 
enclosing  an  introduction  from  Mr.  Short,  U.  S. 
Secretary  of  Legation  at  Paris.  In  this  letter, 
dated  at  Wilmington,  Delaware,  November  2, 
1792,  the  young  Englishman  writes:  "Ambitious 
to  become  the  citizen  of  a  free  state  I  have  left  my 
native  country,  England,  for  America.  I  bring 
with  me  youth,  a  small  family,  a  few  useful  literary 
talents,  and  that  is  all." 

Cobbett  had  been  married  in  the  same  year,  on 
February  5th,  and  visited  Paris,  perhaps  with  an 
intention  of  remaining,  but  becoming  disgusted 
with  the  revolution  he  left  for  America.  He  had 
conceived  a  dislike  of  the  French  revolutionary 
leaders,  among  whom  he  included  Paine.  He  thus 
became  an  easy  victim  of  the  libellous  Life  of 
Paine,  by  George  Chalmers,  which  had  not  been 
reprinted  in  America,  and  reproduced  the  state- 
ments of  that  work  in  a  brief  biographical  sketch 
published  in  Philadelphia,  1796.  In  later  life  Cob- 
bett became  convinced  that  he  had  been  deceived 
into  giving  fresh  currency  to  a  tissue  of  slanders. 

429 


430 


APPENDIX. 


In  the  very  year  of  this  publication,  afterwards 
much  lamented,  Paine  published  in  Europe  a  work 
that  filled  Cobbett  with  admiration.  This  was 
"The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  English  System  of 
Finance,"  which  predicted  the  suspension  of  gold 
payments  by  the  Bank  of  England  that  followed 
the  next  year.  The  pamphlet  became  Cobbett's 
text-book,  and  his  Register  eloquent  in  Paine's 
praise,  the  more  earnestly,  he  confessed,  because  he 
had  "been  one  of  his  most  violent  assailants." 
"  Old  age  having  laid  his  hand  upon  this  truly  great 
man,  this  truly  philosophical  politician,  at  his  ex- 
piring flambeau  I  lighted  my  taper." 

A  sketch  of  Thomas  Paine  and  some  related 
papers  of  Cobbett  are  generously  confided  to  me 
by  his  daughter,  Eleanor  Cobbett,  through  her 
nephew,  William  Cobbett,  Jr.,  of  Woodlands,  near 
Manchester,  England.  The  public  announcement 
(1818)  by  Cobbett,  then  in  America,  of  his  inten- 
tion to  write  a  Life  of  Paine,  led  to  his  nego- 
tiation with  Madame  Bonneville,  who,  with  her 
husband,  resided  in  New  York.  Madame  Bonne- 
ville had  been  disposing  of  some  of  Paine's  manu- 
scripts, such  as  that  on  "  Freemasonry,"  and  the 
reply  to  Bishop  Watson,  printed  in  The  Theophilan- 
thropist  (18 10).  She  had  also  been  preparing, 
with  her  husband's  assistance,  notes  for  a  biogra- 
phy of  Paine,  because  of  the  "  unjust  efforts  to 
tarnish  the  memory  of  Mr.  Paine";  adding,  Et 
V  indignationm  a  fait  prendre  la  plume.''  Cobbett 
agreed  to  give  her  a  thousand  dollars  for  the  man- 
uscript, which  was  to  contain  important  letters  from 
and  to  eminent  men.    She  stated  (September  30, 


APPENDIX. 


1819)  her  conditions,  that  it  should  be  published  in 
England,  without  any  addition,  and  separate  from 
any  other  writings.  I  suppose  it  was  one  or  all  of 
these  conditions  that  caused  the  non-completion  of 
the  bargain.  Cobbett  re-wrote  the  whole  thing,  and 
it  is  now  all  in  his  writing  except  a  few  passages  by 
Madame  Bonneville,  which  I  indicate  by  brackets, 
and  two  or  three  by  his  son,  J.  P.  Cobbett,  Although 
Madame  Bonneville  gave  some  revision  to  Cobbett's 
manuscript,  most  of  the  letters  to  be  supplied  are 
merely  indicated.  No  trace  of  them  exists  among 
the  Cobbett  papers.  Soon  afterward  the  Bonne- 
villes  went  to  Paris,  where  they  kept  a  small  book 
shop.  Nicolas  died  in  1828,  His  biography  in 
Michaud's  Dictionary  is  annotated  by  the  widow, 
and  states  that  in  1829  she  had  begun  to  edit  for 
publication  the  Life  and  posthumous  papers  of 
Thomas  Paine.  From  this  it  would  appear  that 
she  had  retained  the  manuscript,  and  the  original 
letters.  In  1833  Madame  Bonneville  emigrated  to 
St.  Louis,  where  her  son,  the  late  General  Bonne- 
ville, lived.  Her  Catholicism  became,  I  believe, 
devout  with  advancing  years,  and  to  that  cause, 
probably  also  to  a  fear  of  reviving  the  old  scandal 
Chcctham  had  raised,  may  be  due  the  suppression 
of  the  papers,  with  the  result  mentioned  in  the 
introduction  to  this  work.  She  died  in  St.  Louis, 
October  30,  1846,  at  the  age  of  79.  Probably 
William  Cobbett  did  not  feel  entitled  to  publish 
the  manuscript  obtained  under  such  conditions,  or 
he  might  have  waited  for  the  important  documents 
that  were  never  sent.    He  died  in  1835. 

The  recollections  are  those  of   both  M.  and 


432 


APPENDIX. 


Madame  Bonneville.  The  reader  will  find  no  diffi- 
culty in  making  out  the  parts  that  represent 
Madame's  personal  knowledge  and  reminiscences, 
as  Cobbett  has  preserved  her  speech  in  the  first 
person,  and,  with  characteristic  literary  acumen, 
her  expressions  in  such  important  points.  His 
manuscript  is  perfect,  and  I  have  little  editing  to 
do  beyond  occasional  correction  of  a  date,  sup- 
plying one  or  two  letters  indicated,  which  I  have 
found,  and  omitting  a  few  letters,  extracts,  etc., 
already  printed  in  the  body  of  this  work,  where 
unaccompanied  by  any  comment  or  addition  from 
either  Cobbett  or  the  Bonnevilles. 

At  the  time  when  this  Cobbett-Bonneville  sketch 
was  written  New  York  was  still  a  provincial  place. 
Nicolas  Bonneville,  as  Irving  describes  him,  sealed 
under  trees  at  the  Battery,  absorbed  in  his  classics, 
might  have  been  regarded  with  suspicion  had  it 
been  known  that  his  long  separation  from  his  family 
was  due  to  detention  by  the  police.  Madame 
Bonneville  is  reserved  on  that  point.  The  follow- 
ing incident,  besides  illustrating  the  characters  of 
Paine  and  Bonneville,  may  suggest  a  cause  for  the 
rigor  of  Bonneville's  surveillance.  In  1797,  while 
Paine  and  Bonneville  were  editing  the  Bien  In- 
forme,  a  "  suspect "  sought  asylum  with  them. 
This  was  Count  Barruel-Beauvert,  an  author  whose 
writings  alone  had  caused  his  denunciation  as  a 
royalist.  He  had  escaped  from  the  Terror,  and 
now  wandered  back  in  disguise,  a  pauper  Count, 
who  knew  well  the  magnanimity  of  the  two  men 
whose  protection  he  asked.  He  remained,  as 
proof-reader,  in  the  Bonneville  house  for  some  time, 


APPENDIX. 


433 


safely;  but  when  the  conspiracy  of  i8  Fructidor 
(September  4,  1797)  exasperated  the  Republic 
against  royalists,  the  Count  feared  that  he  might 
be  the  means  of  compromising  his  benefactors,  and 
disappeared.  When  the  royalist  conspiracy  against 
Bonaparte  was  discovered,  Barruel-Beauvert  was 
again  hunted,  and  arrested  (1802).  His  trial  prob- 
ably brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  police  his 
former  sojourn  with  Paine  and  Bonneville.  Bona- 
parte sent  by  Fouche  a  warning  to  Paine  that  the 
eye  of  the  police  was  upon  him,  and  that  "  on  the 
first  complaint  he  would  be  sent  to  his  own  country, 
America."  Whether  this,  and  the  closer  surveillance 
on  Bonneville,  were  connected  with  the  Count,  who 
also  suffered  for  a  time,  or  whether  due  to  their  anti- 
slavery  writings  on  Domingo,  remains  conjectural. 
Towards  the  close  of  life  Bonneville  received  a 
pension,  which  was  continued  to  his  widow.  So 
much  even  a  monarchy  with  an  established  church 
could  do  for  a  republican  author,  and  a  freethinker  ; 
for  Bonneville  had  published  heresies  like  those  of 
Paine. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

A    SKETCH    OF    HIS    LIFE    AND  CHARACTER. 

[More  exactly  than  any  other  author  Thomas  Paine  de- 
lineates every  Circumstantial  Events,  private  or  Public  in  his 
Writings  ;  nevertheless,  since  many  pretended  Histories  of 
the  Life  of  T.  P.  have  been  published,  tracing  him  back  to  the 
day  of  his]  '  birth,  we  shall  shortly  observe,  that,  as  was  never 

'  The  bracketed  words,  Madame  Bonneville's,  are  on  a  separate  slip.  An 
opening  paragraph  by  Cobbett  is  crossed  out  by  her  pen  :  ' '  The  early  years 
of  the  life  of  a  Great  Man  are  of  little  consequence  to  the  world.  Whether 
Paine  made  stays  or  gauged  barrels  before  he  became  a  public  character,  is 
VOL.  II. — a8 


434 


APPENDIX. 


denied  by  himself,  he  was  born  at  Thetford,  in  the  County 
of  Norfolk,  England  on  the  29.  January,  in  the  year  1737  ; 
that  his  father  Joseph  Paine  was  a  stay-maker,  and  by  reli- 
gion a  Quaker  ;  that  his  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  country- 
attorney,  and  that  she  belonged  to  the  Church  of  England ; 
but,  it  appears,  that  she  also  afterwards  became  a  Quaker  ; 
for  these  parents  both  belonged  to  the  Meeting  in  1787,  as 
appears  from  a  letter  of  the  father  to  the  son.  The  above- 
mentioned  histories  relate  (and  the  correctness  of  the  state- 
ment has  not  been  denied  by  him),  that  Paine  was  educated  at 
the  free-school  of  Thetford  ;  that  he  left  it  in  1752,  when  he 
was  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  then  worked  for  some  time  with 
his  father  :  that  in  a  year  afterwards,  he  went  to  London  : 
that  from  London  he  went  to  Dover  :  that  about  this  time  he 
was  on  the  eve  of  becoming  a  sailor  :  that  he  afterwards  did 
embark  on  board  a  privateer:  that,  between  the  years  1759 
and  1774  he  was  a  staymaker,  an  excise  officer,  a  grocer,  and 
an  usher  to  a  school  ;  and  that,  during  the  period  he  was 
twice  married,  and  seperated  by  mutual  consent,  from  his  sec- 
ond wife.' 

In  this  year  1774  and  in  the  month  of  September,  Paine 
sailed  from  England  for  Philadelphia,  where  he  arrived  safe  j 
and  now  we  begin  his  history  ;  for  here  we  have  him  in  con- 
nection with  his  literary  labours. 

It  being  an  essential  part  of  our  plan  to  let  Thomas  Paine 
speak  in  his  own  words,  and  explain  himself  the  reason  for 
his  actions,  whenever  we  find  written  papers  in  his  own  hand, 
though  in  incomplete  notes  or  fragments,  we  shall  insert  such, 
in  order  to  enable  the  reader  to  judge  for  himself,  and  to  esti- 
mate the  slightest  circumstances.  Souvent  d'un  grand  dessin 
un  mot  nous  fait  juger.  "  A  word  often  enables  us  to  judge 
of  a  great  design." 

of  no  more  importance  to  us  than  whether  he  was  swaddled  with  woollen  or 
with  linen.  It  is  the  man,  in  conjunction  with  those  labours  which  have 
produced  so  much  effect  in  the  world,  whom  we  are  to  follow  and  contem- 
plate. Nevertheless,  since  many  pretended  histories  of  the  life  of  Paine 
have  been  published,  etc." 

'  The  dates  given  by  Cobbett  from  contemporary  histories  require  revision 
by  the  light  of  the  careful  researches  made  by  myself  and  others,  as  given  at 
the  beginning  of  this  biography. 


APPENDIX. 


435 


"I  happened  to  come  to  America  a  few  months  before  the 
breaking  out  of  hostilities.  I  found  the  disposition  of  the 
people  such  that  they  might  have  been  led  by  a  thread  and 
governed  by  a  reed.  Their  suspicion  was  quick  and  pene- 
trating, but  their  attachment  to  Britain  was  obstinate,  and  it 
was  at  that  time  a  kind  of  treason  to  speak  against  it.  They 
disliked  the  Ministry,  but  they  esteemed  the  Nation.  Their 
idea  of  grievance  operated  without  resentment,  and  their 
single  object  was  reconciliation.  Bad  as  I  believed  the  Min- 
istry to  be,  I  never  conceived  them  capable  of  a  measure  so 
rash  and  wicked  as  the  commencing  of  hostilities  ;  much  less 
did  I  imagine  the  Nation  would  encourage  it.  I  viewed  the 
dispute  as  a  kind  of  law-suit,  in  which  I  supposed  the  parties 
would  find  a  way  either  to  decide  or  settle  it.  I  had  no 
thoughts  of  independence  or  of  arms.  The  world  could  not 
then  have  persuaded  me  that  I  should  be  either  a  soldier  or 
an  author.  If  I  had  any  talents  for  either  they  were  buried 
in  me,  and  might  ever  have  continued  so  had  not  the  neces- 
sity of  the  times  dragged  and  driven  them  into  action.  I  had 
formed  my  plan  of  life,  and  conceiving  myself  happy  wished 
everybody  else  so.  But  when  the  country,  into  which  I  had 
just  set  my  foot,  was  set  on  fire  about  my  ears,  it  was  time  to 
stir.    It  was  time  for  every  man  to  stir." ' 

His  first  intention  at  Philadelphia  was  to  establish  an  Acad- 
emy for  young  ladies,  who  were  to  be  taught  many  branches  of 
learning  then  little  known  in  the  education  of  young  American 
ladies.  But,  in  1775,  undertook  the  management  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Magazine. 

About  this  time  he  published,  in  Bradford's  journal,  an 
essay  on  the  slavery  of  the  negroes,  which  was  universally 
well  received  ;  and  also  stanzas  on  the  death  of  General 
Wolfe. 

In  1776,  January  10,  he  published  Common  Sense.  In  the 
same  year  he  joined  the  army  as  aid-de-camp  to  General 
Greene.  Gordon,  in  his  history  of  the  Independence  of  the 
United  States  (vol.  ii.  p.  78),  says  :  [  Wanting?^ — Ramsay  (Lond. 
ed.  i.  p.  336)  says  :  [  Wanting?^    Anecdote  of  Dr.  Franklin 

'  From  Crisis  vii.,  dated  Philadelphia,  November  21,  1778.  In  Cobbett's 
MS.  the  extract  is  only  indicated. 


436 


APPENDIX. 


preserved  by  Thomas  Paine  :  \\Vanting,  but  no  doubt  one  else- 
where given,  in  the  Hall  manuscripts. '\ 

When  Washington  had  made  his  retreat  from  New  York 
Thomas  Paine  published  the  first  number  of  the  Crisis,  which 
was  read  to  every  corporal's  guard  in  the  camp.  It  revived 
the  army,  reunited  the  members  of  the  [New  York]  Conven- 
tion, when  despair  had  reduced  them  to  nine  in  number,  while 
the  militia  were  abandoning  their  standards  and  flying  in  all 
directions.  The  success  of  the  army  at  Trenton  was,  in  some 
degree,  owing  to  this  first  number  of  the  Crisis.  In  1778  he 
discovered  the  robberies  of  Silas  Deane,  an  agent  of  the  United 
States  in  France.  He  gave  in  his  resignation  as  Secretary, 
which  was  accepted  by  the  Congress.  In  1779  he  was  ap- 
pointed Clerk  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  which 
office  he  retained  until  1780.  In  1780  he  departed  for  France 
with  Col.  John  Laurens,  commissioned  especially  by  the  Con- 
gress to  the  Court  at  Versailles  to  obtain  the  aid  that  was 
wanted.  (See  Gordon's  Hist.,  v.  iii.,  p.  154.)  After  his  return 
from  France  he  received  the  following  letter  from  Col.  Laurens  : 

"  Carolina,  April  18,  1782. — I  received  the  letter  wherein 
you  mention  my  horse  and  trunk,  (the  latter  of  which  was  left 
at  Providence).  The  misery  which  the  former  has  suffered  at 
different  times,  by  mismanagement,  has  greatly  distressed  me. 
He  was  wounded  in  service,  and  I  am  much  attached  to  him. 
If  he  can  be  of  any  service  to  you,  I  entreat  your  acceptance 
of  him,  more  especially  if  you  will  make  use  of  him  in  bring- 
ing you  to  a  country  (Carolina)  where  you  will  be  received 
with  open  arms,  and  all  that  affection  and  respect  which  our 
citizens  are  anxious  to  testify  to  the  author  of  Common  Sense, 
and  the  Crisis. 

"  Adieu  !  I  wish  you  to  regard  this  part  of  America  (Caro- 
lina) as  your  particular  home — and  everything  that  I  can 
command  in  it  to  be  in  common  between  us." 

On  the  loth  of  April,  1783,  the  definitive  treaty  of  peace 
was  received  and  published.  Here  insert  the  letter  from 
Gen.  Nathaniel  Greene  : 

"Ashley-Rives  (Carolina),  Nov.  18,  1782. — Many  people 
wish  to  get  you  into  this  country. 


APPENDIX. 


437 


"  I  see  you  are  determined  to  follow  your  genius  and  not 
your  fortune.  I  have  always  been  in  hopes  that  Congress 
would  have  made  some  handsome  acknowledgement  to  you 
for  past  services.  I  must  confess  that  I  think  you  have  been 
shamefully  neglected  ;  and  that  America  is  indebted  to  few 
characters  more  than  to  you.  But  as  your  passion  leads  to 
fame,  and  not  to  wealth,  your  mortification  will  be  the  less. 
Your  fame  for  your  writings,  will  be  immortal.  At  present 
my  expenses  are  great  ;  nevertheless,  if  you  are  not  con- 
veniently situated,  I  shall  take  a  pride  and  pleasure  in 
contributing  all  in  my  power  to  render  your  situation  happy."  ' 

Then  letter  from  his  father. — "  Dear  Son,  &c."  [Lost.] 

The  following  letter  from  William  Livingston  (Trenton,  4 
November,  1784)  will  show  that  Thomas  Paine  was  not  only 
honored  with  the  esteem  of  the  most  famous  persons,  but  that 
they  were  all  convinced  that  he  had  been  useful  to  the  country.' 

At  this  time  Thomas  Paine  was  living  with  Colonel  Kirk- 
bride,  Bordentown,  where  he  remained  till  his  departure  for 
France.  He  had  bought  a  house  [in],  and  five  acres  of  marshy 
land  over  against,  Bordentown,  near  the  Delaware,  which  over- 
flowed it  frequently.    He  sold  the  land  in  1787. 

Congress  gave  an  order  for  three  thousand  dollars,  which 
Thomas  Paine  received  in  the  same  month. 

Early  in  1787  he  departed  for  France.  He  carried  with 
him  the  model  of  a  bridge  of  his  own  invention  and  construc- 
tion, which  he  submitted,  m  a  drawing,  to  the  French  Acad- 
emy, by  whom  it  was  approved.  From  Paris  he  went  to 
London  on  the  3  September  1787  ;  and  in  the  same  month  he 
went  to  Thetford,  where  he  found  his  father  was  dead,  from 
the  small-pox  ;  and  where  he  settled  an  allowance  on  his 
mother  of  9  shillings  a  week. 

A  part  of  1788  he  passed  in  Rotherham,  in  Yorkshire, 
where  his  bridge  was  cast  and  erected,  chiefly  at  the  expense 
of  the  ingenious  Mr.  Walker.  The  experiment,  however,  cost 
Thomas  Paine  a  considerable  sum. 

When  Burke  published  his  Reflexions  on  the  French  Rev- 

'  This  and  the  preceding  letter  supplied  by  the  author. 
'  Not  found.    Referred  to  in  this  work,  vol.  i.,  p.  200. 


438 


APPENDIX. 


olution,  Thomas  Paine  answered  him  in  his  First  Part  of 
the  Rights  of  Ma?i.  In  January,  1792,  appeared  the  Second 
Fart  of  the  Eights  of  Man.  The  sale  of  the  Fights  of  Mafi 
was  prodigious,  amounting  in  the  course  of  one  year  to  about 
a  hundred  thousand  copies. 

In  1792  he  was  prosecuted  for  his  Rights  of  Man  by  the 
Attorney  General,  McDonald,  and  was  defended  by  Mr. 
Erskine,  and  found  guilty  of  libel.  But  he  was  now  in  France, 
and  could  not  be  brought  up  for  judgment. 

Each  district  of  France  sent  electors  to  the  principal  seat 
of  the  Department,  where  the  Deputies  to  the  National  Assem- 
bly were  chosen.  Two  Departments  appointed  Thomas 
Paine  their  Deputy,  those  of  Oise  and  of  Fas  de  Calais^  of 
which  he  accepted  the  latter.  He  received  the  following  letter 
from  the  President  of  the  National  Assembly,  Herault  de 
Sechelles  : 

"To  Thomas  Paine  : 

"  France  calls  you.  Sir,  to  its  bosom,  to  perform  one  of  the 
most  useful  and  most  honorable  functions,  that  of  contributing, 
by  wise  legislation,  to  the  happiness  of  a  people,  whose  desti- 
nies interest  all  who  think  and  are  united  with  the  welfare  of 
all  who  suffer  in  the  world. 

"  It  becomes  the  nation  that  has  proclaimed  the  Rights  of 
Man,  to  desire  among  her  legislators  him  who  first  dared  to 
estimate  the  consequences  of  those  Rights,  and  who  has  de- 
veloped their  principles  with  that  Common  Sense,  which  is  the 
only  genius  inwardly  felt  by  all  men,  and  the  conception  of 
which  springs  forth  from  nature  and  truth. 

"The  National  Assembly  gave  you  the  title  of  Citizen,  and 
had  seen  with  pleasure  that  its  decree  was  sanctioned  by  the 
only  legitimate  authority,  that  of  the  people,  who  had  already 
claimed  you,  even  before  you  were  nominated. 

"Come,  Sir,  and  enjoy  in  France  the  most  interesting  of 
scenes  for  an  observer  and  a  philosopher, — that  of  a  confiding 
and  generous  people  who,  infamously  betrayed  for  three  years, 
and  wishing  at  last  to  end  the  struggle  between  slavery  and 
liberty,  between  sincerity  and  perfidy,  at  length  arises  in  its 
resolute  and  gigantic  force,  gives  up  to  the  sword  of  the 
law  those  guilty  crowned  things  who  betrayed  them,  resists  the 


APPENDIX. 


439 


barbarians  whom  they  raised  up  to  destroy  the  nation.  Her 
citizens  turned  soldiers,  her  territory  into  camp  and  fortress, 
she  yet  calls  and  collects  in  congress  the  lights  scattered 
through  the  universe.  Men  of  genius,  the  most  capable  for 
their  wisdom  and  virtue,  she  now  calls  to  give  to  her  people  a 
government  the  most  proper  to  insure  their  liberty  and  happi- 
ness. 

"The  Electoral  Assembly  of  the  Department  of  Oise, 
anxious  to  be  the  first  to  elect  you,  has  been  so  fortunate  as 
to  insure  to  itself  that  honour  ;  and  when  many  of  my  fellow 
citizens  desired  me  to  inform  you  of  your  election,  I  remem- 
bered, with  infinite  pleasure,  having  seen  you  at  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's, and  I  congratulated  myself  on  having  had  the  pleasure 
of  knowing  you. 

"  H^RAULT, 

"  President  of  the  National  Assembly." 

At  the  trial  of  Louis  XVI.  before  the  National  Convention 
Thomas  Paine  at  the  Tribune,  with  the  deputy  Bancal  for 
translator  and  interpreter,  gave  his  opinion,  written,  on  the 
capital  sentence  on  Louis  : — That,  though  a  Deputy  of  the 
National  Convention  of  France,  he  could  not  forget,  that,  pre- 
vious to  his  being  that,  he  was  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  which  owed  their  liberty  to  Louis,  and  that  grati- 
tude would  not  allow  him  to  vote  for  the  death  of  the  benefac- 
tor of  America.  On  the  21st  of  January,  1793,  Louis  XVI 
was  beheaded  in  the  Square  of  Louis  XV.  (Letter  to  Marat. 
Letter  to  Marat.)  ' 

Thomas  Paine  was  named  by  the  Assembly  as  one  of  the 
Committee  of  Legislation,  and,  as  he  could  not  discuss  article 
by  article  without  the  aid  of  an  interpreter,  he  drew  out  a  plan 
of  a  constitution." 

The  reign  of  terror  began  on  the  night  of  the  loth  of  March 
1793,  when  the  greatest  number  and  the  best  part  of  the  real 
friends  to  freedom  had  retired  [from  the  Convention].  But,  as 
the  intention  of  the  conspiracy  against  the  Assembly  had  been 
suspected,  as  the  greatest  part  of  the  Deputies  they  wished  to 

'  Both  missing.  Possibly  the  second  should  be  to  Danton.  See  ii.,  p.  53. 
^  See  ii.,  p.  37  seq.,  of  this  work. 


440 


APPENDIX. 


sacrifice  had  been  informed  of  the  threatening  danger,  as, 
moreover,  a  mutual  fear  [existed]  of  the  cunning  tyrany  of 
some  usurper,  the  conspirators,  alarmed,  could  not  this  night 
consummate  their  horrible  machinations.  They  therefore,  for 
this  time,  confined  themselves  to  single  degrees  of  accusation 
and  arrestation  against  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  National 
Convention.  Robespiere  had  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
conspiring  Common-Hall,  which  dared  to  dictate  laws  of 
blood  and  proscription  to  the  Convention.  All  those  whom  he 
could  not  make  bend  under  a  Dictatorship,  which  a  certain 
number  of  anti-revolutionists  feigned  to  grant  him,  as  a  tool 
which  they  could  destroy  at  pleasure,  were  guilty  of  being 
suspected,  and  secretly  destined  to  disappear  from  among 
the  living.  Thomas  Paine,  as  his  marked  enemy  and  rival,  by 
favour  of  the  decree  on  the  suspected  was  classed  among  the 
suspected,  and,  as  a  foreigner,  was  imprisoned  in  the  Luxem- 
bourg in  December  1793.    (See  Letter  to  Washington.)  ' 

From  this  document  it  will  be  seen,  that,  while  in  the  prison, 
he  was,  for  a  month,  afflicted  with  an  illness  that  deprived  him 
of  his  memory.  It  was  during  this  illness  of  Thomas  Paine 
that  the  fall  of  Robespierre  took  place.  Mr.  Monroe,  who 
arrived  at  Paris  some  days  afterwards,  wrote  to  Mr.  Paine, 
assuring  him  of  his  friendship,  as  appears  from  the  letter  to 
Washington.  Fifteen  days  afterwards  Thomas  Paine  received 
a  letter  from  Peter  Whiteside.''  In  consequence  of  this  letter 
Thomas  Paine  wrote  a  memorial  to  Mr.  Monroe.  Mr.  Monroe 
now  claimed  Thomas  Paine,  and  he  ca?ne  out  of  the  prison  on  the 
6th  of  Nove7nber,  17^4,  after  ten  months  of  iniprisonf)ient.  He 
went  to  live  with  Mr.  Monroe,  who  had  cordially  offered  him 
his  house.  In  a  short  time  after,  the  Convention  called  him 
to  take  his  seat  in  that  Assembly  ;  which  he  did,  for  the  reasons 
he  alleges  in  his  letter  to  Washington. 

The  following  two  pieces  Thomas  Paine  wrote  while  in 
Prison  :  "  Essay  on  Aristocracy."  "  Essay  on  the  character  of 
Robespierre."    [Both  missing.'] 

'  This  is  the  bitter  letter  of  which  when  it  appeared  Cobbett  had  written 
such  a  scathing  review. 

^  The  letter  telling  him  of  the  allegations  made  by  some  against  his 
American  citizenship. 


APPENDIX. 


441 


Thomas  Paine  received  the  following  letter  from  Madame 
Lafayette,  whose  husband  was  then  a  prisoner  of  war  in 
Austria  : 

"  19  Brumaire,  Paris. — I  was  this  morning  so  much  agi- 
tated by  the  kind  visit  from  Mr.  Monroe,  that  I  could  hardly 
find  words  to  speak  ;  but,  however,  I  was,  my  dear  Sir,  desir- 
ous to  tell  you,  that  the  news  of  your  being  set  at  liberty, 
which  I  this  morning  learnt  from  General  Kilmaine,  who 
arrived  here  at  the  same  time  with  me,  has  given  me  a  mo- 
ment's consolation  in  the  midst  of  this  abyss  of  misery,  where 
I  shall  all  my  life  remain  plunged.  Gen.  Kilmaine  has  told 
me  that  you  recollected  me,  and  have  taken  great  interest  in 
my  situation  ;  for  which  I  am  exceedingly  grateful. 

"  Accept,  along  with  Mr.  Monroe,  my  congratulations  upon 
your  being  restored  to  each  other,  and  the  assurances  of  these 
sentiments  from  her  who  is  proud  to  proclaim  them,  and  who 
well  deserved  the  title  of  citizen  of  that  second  country, 
though  I  have  assuredly  never  failed,  nor  shall  ever  fail,  to 
the  former.    Salut  and  friendship. 

"  With  all  sincerity  of  my  heart, 

"  N.  Lafayette." 

On  the  27  January,  1794,  Thomas  Paine  published  in  Paris, 
the  First  Part  of  the  "  Age  of  Reason." 

Seeing  the  state  of  things  in  America,  Thomas  Paine  wrote 
a  letter  to  Gen.  Washington  22  February  1795.  Mr.  Monroe 
entreated  him  not  to  send  it,  and,  accordingly  it  was  not  sent 
to  Washington  ;  but  it  was  afterwards  published. 

A  few  months  after  his  going  out  of  prison,  he  had  a  vio- 
lent fever.  Mrs.  Monroe  showed  him  all  possible  kindness 
and  attention.  She  provided  him  with  an  excellent  nurse, 
who  had  for  him  all  the  anxiety  and  assiduity  of  a  sister.  She 
neglected  nothing  to  afford  him  ease  and  comfort,  when  he 
was  totally  unable  to  help  himself.  He  was  in  the  state  of  a 
helpless  child  who  has  its  face  and  hands  washed  by  its 
mother.  The  surgeon  was  the  famous  Dessault,  who  cured 
him  of  an  abscess  which  he  had  in  his  side.  After  the  horri- 
ble 13  Brumaire,  a  friend  of  Thomas  Paine  being  very  sick, 
he,  who  was  in  the  house,  went  to  bring  his  own  excellent 


442 


APPEXDIX. 


nurse  to  take  care  of  his  sick  friend  :  a  fact  of  little  accounl 
in  itself,  but  a  sure  evidence  of  ardent  and  active  friendship 
and  kindness. 

The  Convention  being  occupied  with  a  discussion  of  the 
question  of  what  Constitution  ought  to  be  adopted,  that  of 
1 791  or  that  of  1793,  Thomas  Paine  made  a  speech  (July  7, 
1795)  as  a  member  of  the  [original]  Committee  [on  the  Con- 
stitution] and  Lanthdnas  translated  it  and  read  it  in  the 
Tribune.  This  speech  has  been  translated  into  English,  and 
published  in  London  ;  but,  the  language  of  the  author  has 
been  changed  by  the  two  translations.  It  is  now  given  as 
written  by  the  author.  \^Missing^ 

In  April,  1796,  he  wrote  his  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Brit- 
ish System  of  Finance  j  and,  on  the  30th  of  July  of  that 
year  he  sent  his  letter  to  Washington  off  for  America  by  Mr. 

  who  sent  it  to  Mr.  Bache,  a  newspaper  printer  of 

Philadelphia,  to  be  published,  and  it  was  published  the  same 
year.  The  name  of  the  gentleman  who  conveyed  the  letter, 
and  who  wrote  the  following  to  Thomas  Paine,  is  not  essentia] 
and  therefore  we  suppress  it.  [^Missing.^ 

We  here  insert  a  letter  from  Talleyrand,  the  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  to  show  that  Thomas  Paine  was  always  active 
and  attentive  in  doing  every  thing  which  would  be  useful  to 
America.  \^Missing^\ 

Thomas  Paine  after  he  came  out  of  prison  and  had  re- 
entered the  Convention  wrote  the  following  letter.  \_Missing.'\ 

The  following  is  essentially  connected  with  the  foregoing  : 
"Paris,  October  4,  1796."  \^Afissijig.'\ 

In  October,  1796,  Thomas  Paine  published  the  Secojid 
Fart  of  the  Age  of  Reason. 

This  year  Mr.  Monroe  departed  from  France,  and  soon 
after  Thomas  Paine  went  to  Havre  de  Grace,  to  embark  for 
the  United  States.  But,  he  did  not,  upon  inquiry,  think  it 
prudent  to  go,  on  account  of  the  great  number  of  English 
vessels  then  cruizing  in  the  Channel.  He  therefore  came 
back  to  Paris  ;  but,  while  at  Havre,  wrote  the  following  letter, 
13  April  1797,  to  a  friend  at  Paris.  [^Missing.'] 

The  following  letter  will  not,  we  hope,  seem  indifferent  to 
the  reader  :  "  Dear  Sir,  I  wrote  to  you  etc."  \^Missing.^ 

At  this  time  it  was  that  Thomas  Paine  took  up  his  abode 


APPENDIX. 


443 


at  Mr.  Bonneville's,  who  had  known  him  at  the  Minister  Ro- 
land's, and  as  Mr.  B.  spoke  English,  Thomas  Paine  addressed 
himself  to  him  in  a  more  familiar  and  friendly  manner  than 
to  any  other  persons  of  the  society.  It  was  a  reception  of 
Hospitality  which  was  here  given  to  Thomas  Paine  for  a  week 
or  a  fortnight ;  but,  the  visit  lasted  till  1S02,  when  he  and  Mr. 
Bonneville  parted, — alas  never  to  meet  again  ! 

Our  House  was  at  No.  4  Rue  du  Theatre  Francois.  All  the 
first  floor  was  occupied  as  a  printing  ofifice.  The  whole  house 
was  pretty  well  filled  ;  and  Mr.  Bonneville  gave  up  his  study, 
which  was  not  a  large  one,  and  a  bed-chamber  to  Thomas 
Paine.  He  was  always  in  his  apartments  excepting  at  meal 
times.  He  rose  late.  He  then  used  to  read  the  newspapers, 
from  which,  though  he  understood  but  little  of  the  French 
language  when  spoken,  he  did  not  fail  to  collect  all  the  mate- 
rial information  relating  to  politics,  in  which  subject  he  took 
most  delight.  When  he  had  his  morning's  reading,  he  used  to 
carryback  the  journals  to  Mr.  Bonneville,  and  they  had  a  chat 
upon  the  topicks  of  the  day. 

If  he  had  a  short  jaunt  to  take,  as  for  instance,  to  Puteaux 
just  by  the  bridge  of  Neuilly,  where  Mr.  Skipwith  lived,  he 
always  went  on  foot,  after  suitable  preparations  for  the  jour- 
ney in  that  way.  I  do  not  believe  he  ever  hired  a  coach  to  go 
out  on  pleasure  during  the  whole  of  his  stay  in  Paris.  He 
laughed  at  those  who,  depriving  themselves  of  a  wholesome 
exercise,  could  make  no  other  excuse  for  the  want  of  it  than 
that  they  were  able  to  take  it  whenever  they  pleased.  He  was 
never  idle  in  the  house.  If  not  writing  he  was  busily  employed 
on  some  mechanical  invention,  or  else  entertaining  his  visitors. 
Not  a  day  escaped  without  his  receiving  many  visits.  Mr. 
Barlow,  Mr.  Fulton,  Mr.  Smith  [Sir  Robert]  came  very  often 
to  see  him.  Many  travellers  also  called  on  him  ;  and,  often, 
having  no  other  affair,  talked  to  him  only  of  his  great  reputa- 
tion and  their  admiration  of  his  works.  He  treated  such 
visitors  with  civility,  but  with  little  ceremony,  and,  when  their 
conversation  was  mere  chit-chat,  and  he  found  they  had 
nothing  particular  to  say  to  him,  he  used  to  retire  to  his 
own  pursuits,  leaving  them  to  entertain  themselves  with  their 
own  ideas. 

He  sometimes  spent  his  evenings  at  Mr.  Barlow's,  where 


444 


APPENDIX. 


Mr.  Fulton  lived,  or  at  Mr.  Smith's  [Sir  Robert],  and  some- 
times at  an  Irish  Coffee-house  in  Conde  Street,  where  Irish, 
English,  and  American  people  met.  He  here  learnt  the  state 
of  politics  in  England  and  America.  He  never  went  out  after 
dinner  without  first  taking  a  nap,  which  was  always  of  two  or 
three  hours  length.  And,  when  he  went  out  to  a  dinner  of 
parade,  he  often  came  home  for  the  purpose  of  taking  his 
accustomed  sleep.  It  was  seldom  he  went  into  the  society  of 
French  people  ;  except  when,  by  seeing  some  one  in  office  or 
power,  he  could  obtain  some  favour  for  his  countrymen  who 
might  be  in  need  of  his  good  offices.  These  he  always  per- 
formed with  pleasure,  and  he  never  failed  to  adopt  the  most 
likely  means  to  secure  success.  But  in  one  instance  he  failed. 
He  wrote  as  follows  to  Lord  Cornwallis  ;  but,  he  did  not  save 
NapperTandy.  Letter  to  Lord  Cornwallis.  Letter  27  Brumaire, 
4  year.  Letter  23  Germinal  4  year.  ^The  three  letters  missing.'] 
C.  Jourdan  made  a  report  to  the  Convention  on  the  re- 
establishment  of  ^^//j,  which  had  been  suppressed,  and,  in  great 
part  melted.  Paine  published,  on  this  occasion,  a  letter  to  C. 
Jourdan.' 

He  had  brought  with  him  from  America,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
model  of  a  bridge  of  his  own  construction  and  invention,  which 
model  had  been  adopted  in  England  /or  building  bridges  under 
his  own  direction.  He  employed  part  of  his  time,  while  at  our 
house,  in  bringing  this  model  to  high  perfection,  and  this  he 
accomplished  to  his  wishes.  He  afterwards,  and  according  to 
the  model,  made  a  bridge  of  lead,  which  he  accomplished  by 
moulding  different  blocks  of  lead,  which,  when  joined  together, 
made  the  form  that  he  required.  This  was  most  pleasant 
amusement  for  him.  Though  he  fully  relied  on  the  strength 
of  his  new  bridge,  and  would  produce  arguments  enough  in 
proof  of  its  infallible  strength,  he  often  demonstrated  the 
proof  by  blows  of  the  sledge-hammer,  not  leaving  anyone  in 
doubt  on  the  subject.  One  night  he  took  off  the  scaffold  of 
his  bridge  and  seeing  that  it  stood  firm  under  the  repeated 
strokes  of  hammer,  he  was  so  ravished  that  an  enjoyment  so 
great  was  not  to  be  sufficiently  felt  if  confined  to  his  own 

'  The  words  "  which  will  find  a  place  in  the  Appendix  "  are  here  crossed 
out  by  Madame  Bonneville.    See  ii.,  p.  258  concerning  Jourdan. 


APPENDIX. 


445 


bosom.  He  was  not  satisfied  without  admirers  of  his  success. 
One  night  we  had  just  gone  to  bed,  and  were  surprised  at 
hearing  repeated  strokes  of  the  hammer.  Paine  went  into  Mr. 
Bonneville's  room  and  besought  him  to  go  and  see  his  bridge  : 
come  and  look,  said  he,  it  bears  all  my  blows  and  stands 
like  a  rock.  Mr.  Bonneville  arose,  as  well  to  please  himself 
by  seeing  a  happy  man  as  to  please  him  by  looking  at  his 
bridge.  Nothing  would  do,  unless  I  saw  the  sight  as  well  as 
Mr.  Bonneville.  After  much  exultation  :  "  nothing,  in  the 
world,"  said  he,  "  is  so  fine  as  my  bridge  "  ;  and,  seeing  me 
standing  by  without  uttering  a  word,  he  added,  except  a 
ivomaTiJ"  which  happy  compliment  to  the  sex  he  seemed  to 
think,  a  full  compensation  for  the  trouble  caused  by  this  noc- 
turnal visit  to  the  bridge. 

A  machine  for  planing  boards  was  his  next  invention,  which 
machine  he  had  executed  partly  by  one  blacksmith  and  partly 
by  another.  The  machine  being  put  together  by  him,  he  placed 
it  on  the  floor,  and  with  it  planed  boards  to  any  number  that 
he  required,  to  make  some  models  of  wheels.  Mr.  Bonneville 
has  two  of  these  wheels  now.  There  is  a  specification  of  the 
wheels,  given  by  Mr.  Paine  himself.  This  specification, 
together  with  a  drawing  of  the  model,  made  by  Mr.  Fulton, 
were  deposited  at  Washington,  in  February  i8i  i  ;  and  the  other 
documents  necessary  to  obtain  a  patent  as  an  invention  of 
Thomas  Paine,  for  the  benefit  of  Madam  Bonneville.  To  be 
presented  to  the  Directory  of  France,  a  memorial  on  the  prog- 
ress and  construction  of  iron  bridges.  On  this  subject  the  two 
pieces  here  subjoined  will  throw  sufficient  light.  (Memoir 
upon  Bridges. — Upon  Iron  Bridges. — To  the  Directory. — 
Memoir  on  the  Progress  and  Construction  &c.) 

Preparations  were  made,  real  or  simulated,  for  a  Descent 
upon  England.  Thomas  Paine  was  consulted  by  B.  8.  who 
was  then  in  the  house  of  Talma,  and  he  wrote  the  following 
notes  and  instructions.  Letter  at  Brussells. — The  ^a-ira  of 
America. — To  the  Consul  Lepeaux.' 

'This  paragraph  is  in  the  writing  of  Madame  Bonneville.  "  B.  8." 
means  Bonaparte,  and  seems  to  be  some  cipher.  All  of  the  pieces  by  Paine 
mentioned  are  missing  ;  also  that  addressed  "  To  the  Directory,"  for  the 
answer  to  which  see  p.  296  of  this  volume. 


446 


APPENDIX. 


Chancellor  Livingston,  after  his  arrival  in  France,  came  a  few 
times  to  see  Paine.  One  morning  we  had  him  at  breakfast, 
Dupuis,  the  author  of  the  Origin  of  Worship,  being  of  the 
party  ;  and  Mr.  Livingston,  when  he  got  up  to  go  away,  said 
to  Mr.  Paine  smiling,  "  Make  your  Will  ;  leave  the  mechanics, 
the  iron  bridge,  the  wheels,  etc.  to  America,  and  your  religion 
to  France." 

Thomas  Paine,  while  at  our  house,  published  in  Mr.  Bonne- 
ville's journal  (the  Bien  Jnfortn^^  several  articles  on  passing 
events.' 

A  few  days  before  his  departure  for  America,  he  said,  at 
Mr.  Smith's  [Sir  Robert]  that  he  had  nothing  to  detain  him 
in  France  ;  for  that  he  was  neither  in  love,  debt,  nor  diffi- 
culty. Some  lady  observed,  that  it  was  not,  in  the  company 
of  ladies,  gallant  to  say  he  was  not  in  love.  Upon  this  occa- 
sion he  wrote  the  New  Covenant,  from  the  Castle  in  the  Air 
to  the  Little  Corner  of  the  World,  in  three  stanzas,  and 
sent  it  with  the  following  words  :  "  As  the  ladies  are  better 
judges  of  gallantry  than  the  men  are,  I  will  thank  you  to  tell 
me,  whether  the  enclosed  be  gallantry.  If  it  be,  it  is  truly 
original  ;  and  the  merit  of  it  belongs  to  the  person  who  in- 
spired it."  The  following  was  the  answer  of  Mrs.  Smith. 
"  If  the  usual  style  of  gallantry  was  as  clever  as  your  new 
covenant,  many  a  fair  ladies  heart  would  be  in  danger,  but 
the  Little  Corner  of  the  World  receives  it  from  the  Castle 
in  the  Air  ;  it  is  agreeable  to  her  as  being  the  elegant  fancy  of 
a  friend. — C.  Smith."    \^Stanzas  missing.^ 

At  this  time,  1802,  public  spirit  was  at  end  in  France.  The 
real  republicans  were  harrassed  by  eternal  prosecutions. 
Paine  was  a  truly  grateful  man  :  his  friendship  was  active 
and  warm,  and  steady.  During  the  six  years  that  he  lived  in 
our  house,  he  frequently  pressed  us  to  go  to  America,  offering 
us  all  that  he  should  be  able  to  do  for  us,  and  saying  that  he 
would  bequeath  his  property  to  our  children.  Some  affairs 
of  great  consequence  made  it  impracticable  for  Mr.  Bonne- 
ville to  quit  France  ;  but,  foreseeing  a  new  revolution,  that 
would  strike,  personally,  many  of  the  Republicans,  it  was  re- 

'  The  following  words  are  here  crossed  out  :  "  Also  several  pieces  of 
poetry,  which  will  be  published  hereafter,  with  his  miscellaneous  prose." 


APPENDIX. 


447 


solved,  soon  after  the  departure  of  Mr.  Paine  for  America, 
that  I  should  go  thither  with  my  children,  relying  fully  on  the 
good  offices  of  Mr.  I'aine,  whose  conduct  in  America  justified 
that  reliance. 

In  1802  Paine  left  France,  regretted  by  all  who  knew  him. 
He  embarked  at  Havre  de  Grace  on  board  a  stout  ship,  be- 
longing to  Mr.  Patterson,  of  Baltimore,  he  being  the  only 
passenger.  After  a  very  stormy  passage,  he  landed  at  Balti- 
more on  the  30th  of  October,  181 2.  He  remained  there  but 
a  few  days,  and  then  went  to  Washington,  where  he  published 
his  Letters  to  the  Americans. 

A  few  months  afterwards,  he  went  to  Bordentown,  to  his 
friend  Col.  Kirkbride,  who  had  invited  him,  on  his  return,  by 
the  following  letter  of  12  November,  1802.  \Missing^ 

He  staid  at  Bordentown  about  two  months,  and  then  went 
to  New  York,  where  a  great  number  of  patriots  gave  him  a 
splendid  dinner  at  the  City  Hotel.  In  June,  1803,  he  went  to 
Stonington,  New  England,  to  see  some  friends  ;  and  in  the 
autumn  he  went  to  his  farm  at  New  Rochelle.  (The  letter  of 
Thomas  Paine  to  Mr.  Bonneville,  20  Nov.,  1803.)  [J/m/«^.] 

An  inhabitant  of  this  village  offered  him  an  apartment,  of 
which  he  accepted,  and  while  here  he  was  taken  ill.  His 
complaint  was  a  sort  of  paralytic  affection,  which  took  away 
the  use  of  his  hands.  He  had  had  the  same  while  at  Mr. 
Monroe's  in  Paris,  after  he  was  released  from  prison.  Being 
better,  he  went  to  his  farm,  where  he  remained  a  part  of  the 
winter,  and  he  came  to  New  York  to  spend  the  rest  of  it  ;  but 
in  the  spring  (1804)  he  went  back  to  his  farm.  The  farmer 
who  had  had  his  farm  for  17  or  18  years,  instead  of  paying 
his  rent,  brought  Mr.  Paine  a  bill  for  fencing,  which  made 
Paine  his  debtor  !  They  had  a  law-suit  by  which  Paine  got 
nothing  but  the  right  of  paying  the  law-expenses  !  This  and 
other  necessary  expenses  compelled  him  to  sell  sixty  acres  of 
his  land.  He  then  gave  the  honest  farmer  notice  to  quit  the 
next  April  (1805). 

Upon  taking  possession  of  the  farm  himself,  he  hired  Chris- 
topher Derrick  to  cultivate  it  for  him.  He  soon  found  that 
Derrick  was  not  fit  for  his  place,  and  he,  therefore,  discharged 
him.    This  was  in  the  summer  ;  and,  on  Christmas  Eve  ensu- 


•J 

448  APPENDIX. 

ing,  about  six  o'clock,  Mr.  Paine  being  in  his  room,  on  the 
ground  floor,  reading,  a  gun  was  fired  a  few  yards  from  the 
window.  The  contents  of  the  gun  struck  the  bottom  part  of 
the  window,  and  all  the  charge,  which  was  of  small  shot, 
lodged,  as  was  next  day  discovered,  in  the  window  sill  and 
wall.  The  shooter,  in  firing  the  gun,/^//y  and  the  barrel  of 
the  gun  had  entered  the  ground  where  he  fell,  and  left  an 
impression,  which  Thomas  Paine  observed  the  next  morning. 
Thomas  Paine  went  immediately  to  the  house  of  a  neighbor- 
ing farmer,  and  there  (seeing  a  gun,  he  took  hold  of  it,  and 
perceived  that  the  muzzle  of  the  gun  was  filled  with  fresh 
earth.  And  then  he  heard  that  Christopher  Derick  had  bor- 
rowed the  gun  about  five  o'clock  the  evening  before,  and  had 
returned  it  again  before  six  o'clock  the  same  evening.  Der- 
ick was  arrested,  and  Purdy,  his  brother  farmer,  became  im- 
mediately and  voluntarily  his  bail.  The  cause  was  brought 
forward  at  New  Rochelle  ;  and  Derick  was  acquitted.' 

In  1806  Thomas  Paine  offered  to  vote  at  New  Rochelle  for 
the  election.  But  his  vote  was  not  admitted  ;  on  the  pretence 
only  of  his  not  being  a  citizen  of  America  ;  whereon  he  wrote 
the  following  letters.  \_The  letters  are  here  missing,  but  no  doubt 
the  same  as  those  on  pp.  379-80  of  this  volume?^ 

This  case  was  pleaded  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  New 
York  by  Mr.  Riker,  then  Attorney  General,  and,  though 
Paine  lost  his  cause,  I  as  his  legatee,  did  not  lose  the  having  to 
pay  for  it.  It  is  however,  an  undoubted  fact,  that  Mr.  Paine 
was  an  American  Citizen. 

He  remained  at  New  Rochelle  till  June  1807  ;  till  disgust 
of  every  kind,  occasioned  by  the  gross  and  brutal  conduct  of 
some  of  the  people  there,  made  him  resolve  to  go  and  live  at 
New  York. 

On  the  4th  of  April,  1807,  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to 
Mr.  Bonneville  [in  Paris]  : 

"  My  dear  Bonneville  :  Why  don't  you  come  to  America 
Your  wife  and  two  boys,  Benjamin  and  Thomas,  are  here,  and 
in  good  health.  They  all  speak  English  very  well  ;  but 
Thomas  has  forgot  his  French.    I  intend  to  provide  for  the 

'  See  p.  343  of  this  volume.  Several  paragraphs  here  are  in  the  writing 
of  J.  P.  Cobbett,  then  with  his  father  in  New  York. 


APPENDIX. 


449 


boys,  but,  I  wish  to  see  you  here.  We  heard  of  you  by  letters 
by  Madget  and  Captain  Hailey.  Mrs.  Bonneville,  and  Mrs. 
Thomas,  an  English  woman,  keep  an  academy  for  young  ladies. 

*'  I  send  this  by  a  friend,  Mrs.  Champlin,  who  will  call  on 
Mercier  at  the  Institute,  to  know  where  you  are.  Your 
affectionate  friend." 

And  some  time  after  the  following  letter: 

"  My  dear  Bonneville  :  I  received  your  letter  by  Mrs. 
Champlin,  and  also  the  letter  for  Mrs.  Bonneville,  and  one 
from  her  sister.  I  have  written  to  the  American  Minister  in 
Paris,  Mr.  Armstrong,  desiring  him  to  interest  himself  to  have 
your  surveillance  taken  off  on  condition  of  your  coming  to  join 
your  family  in  the  United  States. 

"This  letter,  with  Mrs.  Bonneville's,  come  to  you  under 
cover  to  the  American  Minister  from  Mr.  Madison,  Secretary 
of  State.  As  soon  as  you  receive  it  I  advise  you  to  call  on 
General  Armstrong  and  inform  him  of  the  proper  method  to 
have  your  surveillance  taken  off.  Mr.  Champagny,  who  suc- 
ceeds Talleyrand,  is,  I  suppose,  the  same  who  was  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  from  whom  I  received  a  handsome  friendly  letter, 
respecting  the  iron  bridge.  I  think  you  once  went  with  me  to 
see  him. 

"  Call  on  Mr  Skipwith  with  my  compliments.  He  will  in- 
form you  what  vessels  will  sail  for  New  York  and  where  from. 
Bordeaux  will  be  the  best  place  to  sail  from.  I  believe  Mr. 
Lee  is  American  Consul  at  Bordeaux.  When  you  arrive  there, 
call  on  him,  with  my  compliments.  You  may  contrive  to  arrive 
at  New  York  in  April  or  May.  The  passages,  in  the  Spring,  are 
generally  short  ;  seldom  more  than  five  weeks,  and  often  less. 

"  Present  my  respects  to  Mercier,  Bernardin  St.  Pierre, 
Dupuis,  Gregoire. — When  you  come,  I  intend  publishing  all 
my  works,  and  those  I  have  yet  in  manuscript,  by  subscrip- 
tion. They  will  make  4  or  5  vol.  4°,  or  5  vol.  8°,  about  400 
pages  each.    Yours  in  friendship. — T.  P."' 

'  This  letter  is  entirely  in  the  writing  of  Madame  Bonneville.  Beneath  it 
is  'vritten  :  "  The  above  is  a  true  copy  of  the  original  ;  I  have  compared  the 
cwo  together.  James  P.  Cobbett."  The  allusion  to  Champagny  is  either  a 
slip  of  Madame's  pen  or  Paine's  memory.    The  minister  who  wrote  him 

VOL.  II. — 29 


450 


APPEXDIX. 


While  Paine  was  one  day  taking  his  usual  after-dinner  nap, 
an  old  woman  called,  and,  asking  for  Mr.  Paine,  said  she  had 
something  of  great  importance  to  communicate  to  him.  She 
was  shown  into  his  bed-chamber  ;  and  Paine,  raising  himself 
on  his  elbow,  and  turning  towards  the  woman,  said  :  "  What 
do  you  want  with  me  ? "  '"I  came,"  said  she,  "  from  God,  to 
tell  you,  that  if  you  don't  repent,  and  believe  in  Christ,  you  '11 
be  dammed."  "  Poh,  poh,  it 's  not  true,"  said  Paine  ;  "  you 
are  not  sent  with  such  an  impertinent  message.  Send  her 
away.  Pshaw  !  God  would  not  send  such  a  foolish  ugly  old 
woman  as  you.  Turn  this  messenger  out.  Get  away  ;  be 
off  :  shut  the  door."    And  so  the  old  woman  packed  herself  off. 

After  his  arrival  Paine  published  several  articles  in  the  news- 
papers of  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Subsequent  to  a  short 
illness  which  he  had  in  1807,  he  could  not  walk  without  pain, 
and  the  difficulty  of  walking  increased  every  day.  On  the 
2ist  of  January,  1808,  he  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  asking  remuneration  for  his  services  ; 
and,  on  the  i4Lh  of  February,  the  same  year,  another  on  the 
same  subject.  These  documents  and  his  letter  to  the  Speaker 
are  aS  follows.' 

The  Committee  of  Claims,  to  which  the  memorial  had  been 
submitted,  passed  the  following  resolution  :  "  Resolved,  that 
Thomas  Paine  has  leave  to  withdraw  his  memorial  and  the 
papers  accompanying  the  same."  He  was  deeply  grieved  at 
this  refusal  ;  some  have  blamed  him  for  exposing  himself  to 
it.  But,  it  should  be  recollected,  that  his  expenses  were  greatly 
augmented  by  his  illness,  and  he  saw  his  means  daily  diminish, 
while  he  feared  a  total  palsy  ;  and  while  he  expected  to  live  to 
a  very  great  age,  as  his  ancestors  had  before  him.  His  money 
yielded  no  interest,  always  having  been  unwilling  to  place 
money  out  in  that  way. 

He  had  made  his  will  in  1807,  during  the  short  illness  al- 
ready noticed.     But  three  months  later,  he  assembled  his 

about  his  bridge  was  Chaptal.  See  ii.,  p.  296.  The  names  in*  the  last 
paragraph  show  what  an  attractive  literary  circle  Paine  had  left  in  France, 
for  a  country  unable  to  appreciate  him. 

'  "Are  as  follows"  in  Madame  B.'s  writing,  after  striking  out  Cobbett's 
words,  "will  be  found  in  the  Appendix."  The  documents  and  letters  are 
not  given,  but  they  are  well  known.    See  ii.,  p.  405. 


ArPKNDIX. 


friends,  and  read  to  them  another  will  ;  saying  that  he  had  be- 
lieved such  and  such  one  to  be  his  friend,  and  that  now  hav- 
ing altered  his  belief  in  them,  he  had  also  altered  his  will. 
From  motives  of  the  same  kind,  he,  three  months  before  his 
death,  made  another  will,  which  he  sealed  up  and  directed  to 
me,  and  gave  it  me  to  keep,  observing  to  me,  that  I  was  more 
interested  in  it  than  any  body  else. 

He  wished  to  be  buried  in  the  Quaker  burying  ground,  and 
sent  for  a  member  of  the  committee  [Willett  Hicks]  who  lived 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  interview  took  place  on  the  19th 
of  March,  1809.  Paine  said,  when  we  were  looking  out  for 
another  lodging,  we  had  to  put  in  order  the  affairs  of  our 
present  abode.  This  was  precisely  the  case  with  him  ;  all  his 
affairs  were  settled,  and  he  had  only  to  provide  his  burying- 
ground  ;  his  father  had  been  a  Quaker,  and  he  hoped  they 
would  not  refuse  him  a  grave  ;  "  I  will,"  added  he,  "  pay  for 
the  digging  of  it." 

The  committee  of  the  Quakers  refused  to  receive  his  body, 
at  which  he  seemed  deeply  moved,  and  observed  to  me,  who 
was  present  at  the  interview,  that  their  refusal  was  foolish. 
"You  will,"  said  I,  "be  buried  on  your  farm."  "I  have  no 
objection  to  that,"  said  he  "but  the  farm  will  be  sold,  and  they 
will  dig  my  bones  up  before  they  be  half  rotten."  "  Mr. 
Paine,"  I  replied,  "  have  confidence  in  your  friends.  I  assure 
you,  that  the  place  where  you  will  be  buried,  shall  never  be 
sold."  He  seemed  satisfied  ;  and  never  spoke  upon  this  sub- 
ject again.    I  have  been  as  good  as  my  word. 

Last  December  [1818]  the  land  of  the  farm  having  been 
divided  between  my  children,  I  gave  fifty  dollars  to  keep 
apart  and  to  myself,  the  place  whereon  the  grave  was. 

Paine,  doubtless,  considered  me  and  my  children  as 
strangers  in  America.  His  affection  for  us  was,  at  any  rate, 
great  and  sincere.  He  anxiously  recommended  us  to  the  pro- 
tection of  Mr.  Emmet,  saying  to  him,  "  when  I  am  dead, 
Madam  Bonneville  will  have  no  friend  here."  And  a  little 
time  after,  obliged  to  draw  money  from  the  Bank,  he  said, 
with  an  air  of  sorrow,  "  you  will  have  nothing  left."' 

'  Paine's  Will  appoints  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Walter  Morton  (with  $200 
each),  and  Madame  Bonneville  executors  ;  gives  a  small  bequest  to  the  widow 
of  Elihu  Palmer,  and  a  considerable  one  to  Rickman  of  London,  who  was  to 


452 


APPENDIX. 


He  was  now  become  extremely  weak.  His  strength  and 
appetite  daily  departed  from  him  ;  and  in  the  day-time  only 
he  was  able,  when  not  in  bed,  to  sit  up  in  his  arm-chair  to  read 
the  newspapers,  and  sometimes  write.  When  he  could  no 
longer  quit  his  bed,  he  made  some  one  read  the  newspapers  to 
him.  His  mind  was  always  active.  He  wrote  nothing  for  the 
press  after  writing  his  last  will,  but  he  would  converse,  and 
took  great  interest  in  politics.  The  vigour  of  his  mind,  which 
had  always  so  strongly  characterized  him,  did  not  leave  him 
to  the  last  moment.  He  never  complained  of  his  bodily  suf- 
ferings, though  they  became  excessive.  His  constitution  was 
strong.  The  want  of  exercise  alone  was  the  cause  of  his  suf- 
ferings. Notwithstanding  the  great  inconveniences  he  was 
obliged  to  sustain  during  his  illness,  in  a  carman's  house 

divide  with  Nicholas  Bonneville  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  North  part  of 
his  farm.  To  Madame  Bonneville  went  his  manuscripts,  movable  effects, 
stock  in  the  N.  Y.  Phoenix  Insurance  Company  estimated  at  $1500,  and 
money  in  hand.  The  South  part  of  the  New  Rochelle  farm,  over  100  acres, 
■were  given  Madame  Bonneville  in  trust  for  her  children,  Benjamin  and 
Thomas,  "their  education  and  maintenance,  until  they  come  to  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years,  in  order  that  she  may  bring  them  well  up,  give  them  good 
and  useful  learning,  and  instruct  them  in  their  duty  to  God,  and  the  practice 
of  morality."  At  majority  they  were  to  share  and  share  alike  in  fee  simple. 
He  desires  to  be  buried  in  the  Quaker  ground, — "  my  father  belonged  to  that 
profession,  and  I  was  partly  brought  up  in  it," — but  if  this  is  not  permitted, 
to  be  buried  on  his  farm.  "  The  place  where  I  am  to  be  buried  to  be  a 
square  of  twelve  feet,  to  be  enclosed  with  rows  of  trees,  and  a  stone  or  post 
and  railed  fence,  with  a  head-stone  with  my  name  and  age  engraved  upon  it, 
author  of  "  Common  Sense."  He  confides  Mrs.  Bonneville  and  her  children 
to  the  care  of  Emmet  and  Morton.  "  Thus  placing  confidence  in  their 
friendship,  I  herewith  take  my  final  leave  of  them  and  of  the  world.  I  have 
lived  an  honest  and  useful  life  to  mankind  ;  my  time  has  been  spent  in  doing 
good  ;  and  I  die  in  perfect  composure  and  resignation  to  the  will  of  my 
Creator  God."  The  Will,  dated  January  18,  1809,  opens  with  the  words, 
' '  The  last  Will  and  Testament  of  me,  the  subscriber,  Thomas  Paine,  repos- 
ing confidence  in  my  Creator  God,  and  in  no  other  being,  for  I  know  of  no 
other,  and  I  believe  in  no  other." 

Mr.  William  Fayel,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  much  information  concern- 
ing the  Bonnevilles  in  St.  Louis,  writes  me  that  so  little  is  known  of  Paine's 
benefactions,  that  "  an  ex-senator  of  the  United  States  recently  asserted  that 
Gen.  Bonneville  was  brought  over  by  Jefferson  and  a  French  lady  ;  and  a 
French  lady,  who  was  intimate  with  the  Bonnevilles,  assured  me  that 
General  Bonneville  was  sent  to  West  Point  by  Lafayette." 


APPENDIX. 


453 


[Ryder's],  in  a  small  village  [Greenwich],  without  any  bosom 
friend  in  whom  he  could  repose  confidence,  without  any  so- 
ciety he  liked,  he  still  did  not  complain  of  his  sufferings.  I 
indeed,  went  regularly  to  see  him  twice  a  week  ;  but,  he  said 
to  me  one  day  :  "  I  am  here  alone,  for  all  these  people  are 
nothing  to  me,  day  after  day,  week  after  week,  month  after 
month,  and  you  don't  come  to  see  me." 

In  a  conversation  between  him  and  Mr.  [Albert]  Gallatin, 
about  this  time,  I  recollect  his  using  these  words  :  "  I  atn  very 
sorry  thai  I  ever  returned  to  this  country."  As  he  was  thus 
situated  and  paying  a  high  price  for  his  lodgings  '  he  expressed 
a  wish  to  come  to  my  house.  This  must  be  a  great  incon- 
venience to  me  from  the  frequent  visits  to  Mr.  Thomas  Paine  ; 
but,  I,  at  last,  consented  ;  and  hired  a  house  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, in  May  1809,  to  which  he  was  carried  in  an  arm-chair, 
after  which  he  seemed  calm  and  satisfied,  and  gave  himself  no 
trouble  about  anything.  He  had  no  disease  that  required  a 
Doctor,  though  Dr.  Romaine  came  to  visit  him  twice  a  week. 
The  swelling,  which  had  commenced  at  his  feet,  had  now 
reached  his  body,  and  some  one  had  been  so  ofificious  as  to  tell 
him  that  he  ought  to  be  tapped.  He  asked  me  if  this  was 
necessary.  I  told  him,  that  I  did  not  know  ;  but,  that,  unless 
he  was  likely  to  derive  great  good  from  it,  it  should  not  be 
done.  The  next  [day]  Doctor  Romaine  came  and  brought 
a  physician  with  him,  and  they  resolved  that  the  tapping  need 
not  take  place. 

He  now  grew  weaker  and  weaker  very  fast.  A  very  few 
days  before  his  death.  Dr.  Romaine  said  to  me,  "  I  don't 
think  he  can  live  till  night."  Paine,  hearing  some  one  speak, 
opens  his  eyes,  and  said  :  "  'T  is  you  Doctor  :  what  news  ?  " 
"Mr.  such  an  one  is  gone  to  France  on  such  business."  "He 
will  do  nothing  there,"  said  Paine.  "  Your  belly  diminishes," 
said  the  Doctor.    "And  yours  augments,"  said  Paine. 

When  he  was  near  his  end,  two  American  clergymen  came 
to  see  him,  and  to  talk  with  him  on  religious  matters.  "  Let 
me  alone,"  said  he  ;  "  good  morning."  He  desired  they 
should  be  admitted  no  more.  One  of  his  friends  came  to  New 
York  ;  a  person  for  whom  he  had  a  great  esteem,  and  whom 

'  The  sentence  thus  far  is  struck  out  by  Madame  Bonneville. 


454 


APPENDIX. 


he  had  not  seen  for  a  long  while.  He  was  overjoyed  at  seeing 
him  ;  but,  this  person  began  to  speak  upon  religion,  and  Paine 
turned  his  head  on  the  other  side,  and  remained  silent,  even  to 
the  adieu  of  the  person.' 

Seeing  his  end  fast  approaching,  I  asked  him,  in  presence 
of  a  friend,  if  he  felt  satisfied  with  the  treatment  he  had 
received  at  our  house,  upon  which  he  could  only  exclaim, 
O !  yes !  He  added  other  words,  but  they  were  incoherent. 
It  was  impossible  for  me  not  to  exert  myself  to  the  utmost  in 
taking  care  of  a  person  to  whom  I  and  my  children  owed  so 
much.  He  now  appeared  to  have  lost  all  kind  of  feeling. 
He  spent  the  night  in  tranquillity,  and  expired  in  the  morning 
at  eight  o'clock,  after  a  short  oppression,  at  my  house  in  Green- 
wich, about  two  miles  from  the  city  of  New  York.  Mr.  Jarvis, 
a  Painter,  who  had  formerly  made  a  portrait  of  him,  moulded 
his  head  in  plaster,  from  which  a  bust  was  executed. 

He  was,  according  to  the  American  custom,  deposited  in  a 
mahogany  cofifin,  with  his  name  and  age  engraved  on  a  silver- 
plate,  put  on  the  cofifin.  His  corpse  was  dressed  in  a  shirt,  a 
muslin  gown  tied  at  neck  and  wrists  with  black  ribbon,  stock- 
ings, drawers  ;  and  a  cap  was  put  under  his  head  as  a  pillow. 
(He  never  slept  in  a  night-cap.)  Before  the  coffin  was  placed 
on  the  carriage,  I  went  to  see  him  ;  and  having  a  rose  in  my 
bosom,  I  took  it  out,  and  placed  on  his  breast.  Death  had  not 
disfigured  him.  Though  very  thin,  his  bones  were  not  pro- 
tuberant.   He  was  not  wrinkled,  and  had  lost  very  little  hair. 

His  voice  was  very  strong  even  to  his  last  moments.  He 
often  exclaimed,  oh,  lord  help  me  !  An  exclamation  the  in- 
voluntary effect  of  pain.  He  groaned  deeply,  and  when  a 
question  was  put  to  him,  calling  him  by  his  name,  he  opened 
his  eyes,  as  if  waking  from  a  dream.  He  never  answered  the 
question,  but  asked  one  himself  ;  as,  what  is  it  o'clock,  &c. 

On  the  ninth  of  June  my  son  and  I,  and  a  few  of  Thomas 
Paine's  friends,  set  off  with  the  corpse  to  New  Rochelle,  a 
place  22  miles  from  New  York.  It  was  my  intention  to  have 
him  buried  in  the  Orchard  of  his  own  farm  ;  but  the  farmer 
who  lived  there  at  that  time  said,  that  Thomas  Paine,  walk- 

'  Cobbett's  words  erased  :  "  and  Paine  could  no  longer  bear  the  sight  of 
him." 


APPENDIX. 


455 


ing  with  him  one  day,  said,  pointing  to  another  part  of  the 
land,  he  was  desirous  of  being  buried  there.  "Then,"  said 
I,  "  that  shall  be  the  place  of  his  burial."  And,  my  instruc- 
tions were  accordingly  put  in  execution.  The  head-stone  was 
put  up  about  a  week  afterwards  with  the  following  inscription  : 
"  Thomas  Paine,  Author  of  "  Common  Sense,"  died  the  eighth 
of  June,  1809,  aged  72  years."  According  to  his  will,  a  wall 
twelve  feet  square  was  erected  round  his  tomb.  Four  trees 
have  been  planted  outside  the  wall,  two  weeping  willows  and 
two  cypresses.  Many  persons  have  taken  away  pieces  of  the 
tombstone  and  of  the  trees,  in  memory  of  the  deceased  ; 
foreigners  especially  have  been  eager  to  obtain  these  me- 
morials, some  of  which  have  been  sent  to  England.'  They 
have  been  put  in  frames  and  preserved.  Verses  in  honor  of 
Paine  have  been  written  on  the  head  stone.  The  grave  is  sit- 
uated at  the  angle  of  the  farm,  by  the  entrance  to  it. 

This  interment  was  a  scene  to  affect  and  to  wound  any  sen- 
sible heart.  Contemplating  who  it  was,  what  man  it  was,  that 
we  were  committing  to  an  obscure  grave  on  an  open  and  dis- 
regarded bit  of  land,  I  could  not  help  feeling  most  acutely. 
Before  the  earth  was  thrown  down  upon  the  coffin,  I,  placing 
myself  at  the  east  end  of  the  grave,  said  to  my  son  Benjamin, 
"  stand  you  there,  at  the  other  end,  as  a  witness  for  grateful 
America."  Looking  round  me,  and  beholding  the  small  group 
of  spectators,  I  exclaimed,  as  the  earth  was  tumbled  into  the 
grave,  "  Oh  !  Mr.  Paine  !  My  son  stands  here  as  testimony  of 
the  gratitude  of  America,  and  I,  for  France  !  "  This  was 
the  funeral  ceremony  of  this  great  politician  and  philosopher  ! ' 

'  The  breaking  of  the  original  gravestone  has  been  traditionally  ascribed 
to  pious  hatred.  A  fragment  of  it,  now  in  New  York,  is  sometimes  shown 
at  celebrations  of  Paine's  birthday  as  a  witness  of  the  ferocity  vented  on 
Paine's  grave.    It  is  satisfactory  to  find  another  interpretation. 

Paine's  friends,  as  we  have  said,  were  too  poor  to  leave  their  work  in  the 
city,  which  had  refused  Paine  a  grave.  The  Rev.  Robert  Bolton,  in  his 
History  of  Westchester  County,  introduces  Cheetham's  slanders  of  Paine 
with  the  words  :  "as  his  own  biographer  remarks."  His  own  !  But  even 
Cheetham  does  not  lie  enough  for  Bolton,  who  says  :  "  His  [Paine's]  body 
was  brought  up  from  New  York  in  a  hearse  used  for  carrying  the  dead  to 
Potter's  Field  ;  a  white  man  drove  the  vehicle,  accompanied  by  a  negro  to 
dig  the  grave."  The  whole  Judas  legend  is  in  that  allusion  to  Potter's 
Field.    Such  is  history,  where  Paine  is  concerned  ! 


456 


APPENDIX. 


The  eighty-eight  acres  of  the  north  part  were  sold  at  25 
dollars  an  acre.  The  half  of  the  south  (the  share  of  Thomas 
de  Bonneville)  has  been  sold  for  the  total  sum  of  1425  dollars. 
The  other  part  of  the  south,  which  was  left  to  Benjamin  de 
Bonneville,  has  just  (1819)  been  sold  in  lots,  reserving  the  spot 
in  which  Thomas  Paine  was  buried,  being  a  piece  of  land  45 
feet  square. 

Thomas  Paine  s posthumous  works.  He  left  the  manuscript 
of  his  answer  to  Bishop  Watson  ;  the  Third  Part  of  his  Age 
of  Reason  ;  several  pieces  on  Religious  subjects,  prose  and 
verse.  The  great  part  of  his  posthumous  political  works  will 
be  found  in  the  Appendix.  Some  correspondences  cannot  be,, 
as  yet,  published.' 

In  Mechanics  he  has  left  two  models  of  wheels  for  carriages, 
and  of  a  machine  to  plane  boards.  Of  the  two  models  of 
bridges,  left  at  the  Philadelphia  Museum,  only  one  has  been 
preserved,  and  that  in  great  disorder,  one  side  being  taken 
entirely  off.  But,  I  must  say  here,  that  it  was  then  out  of  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Peale.* 

Though  it  is  difficult,  at  present,  to  make  some  people  be- 
lieve that,  instead  of  being  looked  on  as  deist  axidi  a.  drunkard, 
Paine  ought  to  be  viewed  as  a  philosopher  and  a  truly  benevo- 
lent man,  future  generations  will  make  amends  for  the  errors 
of  their  forefathers,  by  regarding  him  as  a  most  worthy  man, 
and  by  estimating  his  talents  and  character  according  to  their 
real  worth. 

Thomas  Paine  was  about  five  feet  nine  inches  high,  English 
measure,  and  about  five  feet  six  French  measure.  His  bust 
was  well  proportioned  ;  and  his  face  oblong.  Reflexion  was 
the  great  expression  of  his  face  ;  in  which  was  always  seen 
the  calm  proceeding  from  a  conscience  void  of  reproach.  His 
eye,  which  was  black,  was  lively  and  piercing,  and  told  us  that 
he  saw  into  the  very  heart  of  hearts  [of  any  one  who  wished 
to  deceive  him].^    A  most  benignant  smile  expressed  what  he 

'  All  except  the  first  two  MSS.,  of  which  fragments  exist,  and  some 
poems,  were  no  doubt  consumed  at  St.  Louis,  as  stated  in  the  Introduction 
to  this  work. 

'  I  have  vainly  searched  in  Philadelphia  for  some  relic  of  Paine's  bridges. 
^  Bracketed  words  marked  out.    In  this  paragraph  and  some  that  follow 
the  hand  of  Nicolas  Bonneville  is,  I  think,  discernible. 


APPENDIX. 


457 


felt  upon  receiving  an  affectionate  salutation,  or  praise  deli- 
cately conveyed.  His  leg  and  foot  were  elegant,  and  he  stood 
and  walked  upright,  without  stiffness  or  affectation.  [He 
never  wore  a  sword  nor  cane],  but  often  walked  with  his  hat 
in  one  hand  and  with  his  other  hand  behind  his  back.  His 
countenance,  when  walking,  was  generally  thoughtful.  In 
receiving  salutations  he  bowed  very  gracefully,  and,  if  from  an 
acquaintance,  he  did  not  begin  with  "how  d'ye  do?  "but, 
with  a  "what  news?"  If  they  had  none,  he  gave  them  his. 
His  beard,  his  lips,  his  head,  the  motion  of  his  eye-brow,  all 
aided  in  developing  his  mind. 

Was  he  where  he  got  at  the  English  or  American  news- 
papers, he  hastened  to  over-run  them  all,  like  those  who  read 
to  make  extracts  for  their  paper.  His  first  glance  was  for  the 
funds,  which,  in  spite  of  jobbing  and  the  tricks  of  government, 
he  always  looked  on  as  the  sure  thermometer  of  public  affairs. 
Parliamentary  Debates,  the  Bills,  concealing  a  true  or  sham 
opposition  of  such  or  such  orators,  the  secret  pay  and  violent 
theatrical  declamation,  or  the  revelations  of  public  or  private 
meetings  at  the  taverns  ;  these  interested  him  so  much  that  he 
longed  for  an  ear  and  a  heart  to  pour  forth  all  his  soul.  When 
he  added  that  he  knew  the  Republican  or  the  hypocrite,  he 
would  affirm,  beforehand,  that  such  or  such  a  bill,  such  or  such 
a  measure,  would  take  place  ;  and  very  seldom,  in  such  a  case, 
the  cunning  politic  or  the  clear-sighted  observer  was  mis- 
taken in  his  assertions  ;  for  they  were  not  for  him  mere  con- 
jectures. He  spoke  of  a  future  event  as  of  a  thing  past  and 
consummated.  In  a  country  where  the  slightest  steps  are  ex- 
panded to  open  day,,  where  the  feeblest  connexions  are  known 
from  their  beginning,  and  with  all  the  views  of  ambition,  of 
interest  or  rivalship,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  escape  the  eye 
of  such  an  observer  as  Thomas  Paine,  whom  no  private  inter- 
est could  blind  or  bewitch,  as  was  said  by  the  clear-sighted 
Michael  Montaigne. 

His  writings  are  generally  perspicuous  and  full  of  light,  and 
often  they  discover  the  sardonic  and  sharp  smile  of  Voltaire. 
One  may  see  that  he  wishes  to  wound  to  the  quick  ;  and  that 
he  hugs  himself  in  his  success.  But  Voltaire  all  at  once  over- 
runs an  immense  space  and  resumes  his  vehement  and  drama- 
tic step  :  Paine  stops  you,  and  points  to  the  place  where  you 


458 


APPENDIX. 


ought  to  smile  with  him  at  the  ingenious  traits  ;  a  gift  to  envy 
and  stupidity. 

Thomas  Paine  did  not  like  to  be  questioned.  He  used  to 
say,  that  he  thought  nothing  more  impertinent,  than  to  say  to 
any  body  :  "  What  do  you  think  of  that  ?  "  On  his  arrival  at 
New  York,  he  went  to  see  General  Gates.  After  the  usual 
words  of  salutation,  the  General  said  :  "  I  have  always  had  it 
in  mind,  if  I  ever  saw  you  again,  to  ask  you  whether  you  were 
married,  as  people  have  said."  Paine  not  answering,  the  Gen- 
eral went  on  :  "  Tell  me  how  it  is."  "  I  never,"  said  Paine, 
"answer  impertinent  questions." 

Seemingly  insensible  and  hard  to  himself,  he  was  not  so  to 
the  just  wailings  of  the  unhappy.  Without  any  vehement  ex- 
pression of  his  sorrow,  you  might  see  him  calling  up  all  his 
powers,  walking  silently,  thinking  of  the  best  means  of  consol- 
ing the  unfortunate  applicant  ;  and  never  did  they  go  from 
him  without  some  rays  of  hope.  And  as  his  will  was  firm  and 
settled,  his  efforts  were  always  successful.  The  man  hardened 
in  vice  and  in  courts  [of  law],  .yields  more  easily  than  one 
imagines  to  the  manly  entreaties  of  a  disinterested  benefactor. 

Thomas  Paine  loved  his  friends  with  sincere  and  tender  af- 
fection. His  simplicity  of  heart  and  that  happy  kind  of  open- 
ness, or  rather,  carelessness,  which  charms  our  hearts  in  read- 
ing the  fables  of  the  good  Lafontaine,  made  him  extremely 
amiable.  If  little  children  were  near  him  he  patted  them, 
searched  his  pockets  for  the  store  of  cakes,  biscuits,  sugar- 
plums, pieces  of  sugar,  of  which  he  used  to  take  possession  as 
of  a  treasure  belonging  to  them,  and  the  distribution  of  which 
belonged  to  him.'  His  conversation  was  unaffectedly  simple 
and  frank  ;  his  language  natural  ;  always  abounding  in  curious 
anecdotes.  He  justly  and  fully  seized  the  characters  of  all 
those  of  whom  he  related  any  singular  traits.  For  his  con- 
versation was  satyrick,  instructive,  full  of  witticisms.  If  he 
related  an  anecdote  a  second  time,  it  was  always  in  the  same 
words  and  the  same  tone,  like  a  comic  actor  who  knows  the 
place  where  he  is  to  be  applauded.  He  neither  cut  the  tale 
short  nor  told  it  too  circumstantially.    It  was  real  conversa- 

'  At  this  point  are  the  words  :  ' '  Barlow's  letter  [»'.  e.  to  Cheetham]  we 
agreed  to  suppress." 


APPENDIX. 


459 


tion,  enlivened  by  digressions  well  brought  in.  The  vivacity 
of  his  mind,  and  the  numerous  scenes  of  which  he  had  been  a 
spectator,  or  in  which  he  had  been  an  actor,  rendered  his  nar- 
rations the  more  animated,  his  conversation  more  endearing. 
His  memory  was  admirable.  Politics  were  his  favorite  subject. 
He  never  spoke  on  religious  subjects,  unless  pressed  to  it,  and 
never  disputed  about  such  matters.  He  could  not  speak 
French  :  he  could  understand  it  tolerably  well  when  spoken  to 
him,  and  he  understood  it  when  on  paper  perfectly  well.  He 
never  went  to  the  theatre  :  never  spoke  on  dramatic  subjects. 
He  rather  delighted  in  ridiculing  poetry.  He  did  not  like  it : 
he  said  it  was  not  a  serious  thing,  but  a  sport  of  the  mind, 
which  often  had  not  common  sense.  His  common  reading 
was  the  affairs  of  the  day  ;  not  a  single  newspaper  escaped 
him  ;  not  a  political  discussion  :  he  knew  how  to  strike  while 
the  iron  was  hot  ;  and,  as  he  was  always  on  the  watch,  he  was 
always  ready  to  write.  Hence  all  his  pamphlets  have  been 
popular  and  powerful.  He  wrote  with  composure  and  steadi- 
ness, as  if  under  the  guidance  of  a  tutelary  genius.  If,  for  an 
instant,  he  stopped,  it  was  always  in  the  attitude  of  a  man  who 
listens.  The  Saint  Jerome  of  Raphael  would  give  a  perfect 
idea  of  his  contemplative  recollection,  to  listen  to  the  voice 
from  on  high  which  makes  itself  heard  in  the  heart. 

[It  will  be  proper,  I  believe,  to  say  here,  that  shortly  after 
the  Death  of  Thomas  Paine  a  book  appeared,  under  the  Title 
of  :  The  Life  of  Thomas  Paine,  by  Cheetham.  In  this  libel  my 
character  was  calumniated.  I  cited  the  Author  before  the 
Criminal  Court  of  New  York.  He  was  tried  and  in  spite  of 
all  his  manoeuvres,  he  was  found  guilty. — M.  B.  de  Bonne- 
ville.] 

This  last  paragraph,  in  brackets,  is  in  the  writ- 
ing of  Madame  Bonneville. 


APPENDIX  B. 


THE  HALL  MANUSCRIPTS. 

In  1785,  John  Hall,  an  able  mechanician  and 
admirable  man,  emigrated  from  Leicester,  England, 
to  Philadelphia.  He  carried  letters  to  Paine, 
who  found  him  a  man  after  his  own  heart.  I  am 
indebted  to  his  relatives.  Dr.  Dutton  Steele  of 
Philadelphia  and  the  Misses  Steele,  for  Hall's 
journals,  which  extend  over  many  years.  It  will 
be  seen  that  the  papers  are  of  historical  importance 
apart  from  their  records  concerning  Paine.  Hall's 
entries  of  his  daily  intercourse  with  Paine,  which  he 
never  dreamed  would  see  the  light,  represent  a 
portraiture  such  as  has  rarely  been  secured  of  any 
character  in  history.  The  extent  already  reached 
by  this  work  compels  me  to  omit  much  that  would 
impress  the  reader  with  the  excellent  work  of 
John  Hall  himself,  who  largely  advanced  ironwork 
m  New  Jersey,  and  whose  grave  at  Flemmington, 
surrounded  by  those  of  the  relatives  that  followed 
him,  and  near  the  library  and  workshop  he  left, 
merits  a  noble  monument. 

Letter.    Philadelphia,  August  30,  1785. 

"  I  went  a  day  or  two  past  with  the  Captain  and  his  lady  to 
see  the  exhibition  of  patriotic  paintings.  Paine  the  author  of 
Common  Sense   is  amongst  them.    He  went  from  England 

460 


APPENDIX. 


461 


(had  been  usher  to  a  school)  on  board  the  same  vessel  that  our 
Captain  [Coltman]  went  in  last  time  ;  their  acquaintance  then 
commenced  and  has  continued  ever  since.  He  resides  now  in 
Uordentown  in  the  Jerseys,  and  it  is  probable  that  I  may  see 
him  before  it  be  long  as  when  he  comes  to  town  the  Captain 
says  he  is  sure  to  call  on  him.  It  is  supposed  the  various 
States  have  made  his  circumstances  easy — General  Washington, 
said  if  they  did  not  provide  for  him  he  would  himself.  I  think 
his  services  were  as  useful  as  the  sword." 

Journal,  1785. 

Nov.  i6th.  Received  a  Letter  from  Mr.  Pain  by  his  Boy, 
informing  us  of  his  coming  this  day.  Between  3  and  4  Mr. 
Pain,  Col.  Kerbright  [Kirkbride],  and  another  gentleman  came 
to  our  door  in  a  waggon. 

17th.  At  dinner  Mr.  Pain  told  us  a  tale  of  the  Indians,  he 
being  at  a  meeting  of  them  with  others  to  settle  some  affairs  in 
1776.    The  Doctor  visited  Mr.  Pain. 

19th.  Performed  a  trifling  operation  for  Mr.  Pain. 

22d.  A  remark  of  Mr.  Pain's — not  to  give  a  deciding  opinion 
between  two  persons  you  are  in  friendship  with,  lest  you  lose 
one  by  it ;  whilst  doing  that  between  two  persons,  your  sup- 
posed enemies,  may  make  one  your  friend. 

24th.  This  evening  pulled  Mr.  Pain's  Boy  a  tooth  out. 

Dec.  12.  With  much  pain  drawd  the  Board  in  at  Hanna's 
chamber  window  to  work  Mr.  Pain's  bridge  on.  I  pinned  6 
more  arches  together  which  makes  the  whole  9.  I  sweat  at  it ; 
Mr.  Pain  gives  me  some  wine  and  water  as  I  was  very  dry.  Past 
9  o'clock  Dr.  Hutchinson  called  in  on  Mr.  Paine. 

[The  December  journal  is  mainly  occupied  with  mention  of 
Paine's  visitors  Franklin,  Gouverneur  Morris,  Dr.  Rush,  Tench 
Francis,  Robert  Morris,  Rittenhouse,  Redman.  A  rubber  of 
whist  in  which  Paine  won  is  mentioned.] 

Sunday  Jan.  ist  1786.  Mr.  Paine  went  to  dine  with  Dr. 
Franklin  today  ;  staid  till  after  tea  in  the  evening.  They  tried 
the  burning  of  our  candles  by  blowing  a  gentle  current  through 
them.  It  greatly  improved  the  light.  The  draught  of  air  is 
prevented  by  passing  through  a  cold  tube  of  tallow.  The  tin 
of  the  new  lamp  by  internal  reflections  is  heated  and  causes 


462 


APPENDIX. 


a  constant  current.  This  is  the  Doctor's  conjecture.  [Con- 
cerning Paine's  candle  see  i.,  p.  214.] 

Feb.  25th.  Mr,  Paine  not  returned.  We  sent  to  all  the 
places  we  could  suppose  him  to  be  at  and  no  tidings  of  him. 
We  became  very  unhappy  fearing  his  political  enemies  should 
have  shown  him  foul  play.  Went  to  bed  at  10  o.c,  and  about 
2  o.c.  a  knocking  at  the  door  proves  Mr.  Paine. 

March  loth.  Before  7  o'c  a  brother  sajnt-maker  came  with 
a  model  of  machine  to  drive  boats  against  stream.'  He  had 
communicated  his  scheme  to  H.  who  had  made  alterations 
and  a  company  had  taken  it  and  refused  saint-maker  part- 
nership. He  would  fain  have  given  it  to  Mr.  Paine  or  me, 
but  I  a  stranger  refused  and  Mr.  Paine  had  enough  hobbys 
of  his  own.  Mr.  Paine  pointed  out  a  mode  to  simplify  his 
apparatus  greatly.  He  gave  him  5s.  to  send  him  one  of 
his  maps. 

April  15th.  Mr.  Paine  asked  me  to  go  and  see  Indian  Chiefs 
of  Sennaka.  Nation,  I  gladly  assented.  They  have  an  inter- 
preter. Mr.  Paine  wished  to  see  him  and  made  himself  known 
to  him  by  past  remembrance  as  Common  Sense,  and  was 
introduced  into  the  room,  addressed  them  as  "  brothers  "  and 
shook  hands  cordially  Mr.  Paine  treated  them  with  2s.  bowl 
of  punch. 

Bordentown  Letter,  May  28.  Colonel  Kirkbride  is  the 
gentleman  in  whose  family  I  am.  My  patron  [Paine]  is  like- 
wise a  boarder  and  makes  his  home  here  I  am  diligently 
employed  in  Saint  making,  now  in  Iron  that  I  had  before 
finished  in  wood,  with  some  improvements,  but  you  may  come 
and  see  what  it  is 

Letter,  June  4.  Skepticism  and  Credulity  are  as  general 
here  as  elsewhere,  for  what  I  see.  In  this  town  is  a  Quaker 
meeting  and  one  of  another  class — I  suppose  of  the  Baptist 
cast — And  a  person  in  town  a  Tailor  by  trade  that  goes  about 
a-soulmending  on  Sundays  to  various  places,  as  most  neces- 
sary, or  I  suppose  advantageous,  to  himself  ;  for  by  one  trade 
or  the  other  he  has  built  himself  a  very  elegant  frame  house 

'  Hall  calls  inventions  "saints."  This  saint-maker  is  John  Fitch,  the 
"  H."  being  Henry  of  Lancaster.  This  entry  is  of  much  interest.  (See 
ii.,  p.  281.)    The  first  steamer  seems  to  have  gone  begging  ! 


APPENDIX. 


463 


in  this  town.  This  man's  way  to  Heaven  is  somewhat  different 
to  the  other.  I  am  informed  he  makes  publick  dippings  &c. 
My  Employer  has  Common  Sense  enough  to  disbeheve  most  of 
the  Common  Systematic  Theories  of  Divinity  but  does  not 
seem  to  establish  any  for  himself.  The  Colonel  [Kirkbride] 
is  as  Free  as  John  Coltman. 

[Under  date  of  New  York,  July  31st,  Hall  writes  an  account 
of  a  journey  with  Faine  to  Morrisania,  to  visit  Gen.  Morris, 
and  afterwards  to  the  farm  at  New  Rochelle,  of  which  he  gives 
particulars  already  known  to  my  reader.] 

Letter  of  Paine  to  John  Hall,  at  Capt.  Coltman's,  in  Letitia 
Court,  Market  St,  between  Front  and  Second  St.  Philadelphia  : 

"  Bordentown,  Sep.  22,  1786. — Old  Friend:  In  the  first 
place  I  have  settled  with  Mr.  Gordon  for  the  time  he  has  been 
in  the  house — in  the  second  I  have  put  Mrs.  Read  who,  you 
know  has  part  of  our  house  Col.  Kirkbride's  but  is  at  this  time 
at  Lancaster,  in  possession  by  putting  part  of  her  goods  into  it.' 
By  this  means  we  shall  have  room  at  our  house  (Col.  Kirk- 
bride) for  carrying  on  our  operations.  As  Philadelphia  is  so 
injurious  to  your  health  and  as  apartments  at  Wm.  Foulke's 
would  not  be  convenient  to  you,  we  can  now  conveniently 
make  room  for  you  here.  Mrs.  Kirkbride  mentioned  this  to 
me  herself  and  it  is  by  the  choice  of  both  her  and  Col.  K.  that 
I  write  it  to  you.  I  wish  you  could  come  up  to-morrow 
(Sunday)  and  bring  the  iron  with  you.  I  shall  be  backward 
and  forward  between  here  and  Philadelphia  pretty  often  until 
the  elections  are  over,  but  we  can  make  a  beginning  here  and 
what  more  iron  we  may  want  we  can  get  at  the  Delaware 
Works,  and  if  you  should  want  to  go  to  Mount  hope  you  can 
more  conveniently  go  from  here  than  from  Philadelphia — thus 
you  see  I  have  done  your  business  since  I  have  been  up.  The 
enclosed  letter  is  for  Mr.  Henry  who  is  member  for  Lancaster 
County.  I  do  not  know  where  he  lodges,  but  if  William  will 
be  so  good  as  to  give  it  to  the  door  keeper  or  Clerk  of  the 
Assembly  it  will  be  safe.  Bring  up  the  walnut  strips  with  you. 
Your  coming  here  will  give  an  opportunity  to  Joseph  to  get 

'  Mrs.  Read  was  thus  transferred  to  Paine's  own  house.  Her  husband 
died  next  year  and  Paine  declined  to  receive  any  rent. 


464 


APPENDIX. 


acquainted  with  Col.  K.  who  will  very  freely  give  any  informa- 
tion in  his  power.  Compts.  in  the  family.  Your  friend  and 
Hbl.  servt." 

Undated  letter  of  Paine  to  John  Hall,  in  Philadelphia  : 

"  Fryday  Noon. — Old  Friend  :  Inclosed  (as  the  man  said 
by  the  horse)  I  send  you  the  battau,  as  I  wish  to  present  it  as 
neat  and  clean  as  can  be  done  ;  I  commit  it  to  your  care.  The 
sooner  it  is  got  on  Board  the  vessel  the  better.  I  shall  set  off 
from  here  on  Monday  and  expect  to  be  in  New  York  on 
Tuesday.  I  shall  take  all  the  tools  that  are  here  with  me> 
and  wish  you  would  take  some  with  you,  that  if  we  should 
get  on  a  working  fit  we  may  have  some  to  work  with. 
Let  me  hear  from  you  by  the  Sunday's  boat  and  send  me  the 
name  of  the  vessel  and  Captain  you  go  with  and  what  owners 
they  belong  to  at  New  York,  or  what  merchants  they  go  to. 
I  wrote  to  you  by  the  last  boat,  and  Peter  tells  me  he  gave  the 
letter  to  Capt.  Haines,  but  Joe  says  that  he  enquired  for  letters 
and  was  told  there  was  none — wishing  you  an  agreeable 
voyage  and  meeting  at  New  York,  I  am  your  friend,  and 
humble  servant.  Present  my  compliments  to  Capt.  and  Mrs. 
Coltman  and  William.  Col.  and  Mrs.  Kirkbride's  and  Polly's 
compt." 

Note  of  Hall,  dated  Oct.  3  [1786]  "  Dashwood  Park,  of  Cap- 
tain Roberts  :  On  Thursday  morning  early  Sept.  28th  I  took 
the  stage  wagon  for  Trenton.  Jo  had  gone  up  by  water  the 
day  before  to  a  sale  of  land  and  a  very  capital  iron  works  and 
nailing  with  a  large  corn  mill.  It  was  a  fa^  sale  there  was  a 
forge  and  rolling  and  slitting  mill  upon  an  extensive  scale  the 
man  has  failed — The  works  with  about  60  or  70  acres  of  land 
were  sold  for  ^^9000  currency.  Then  was  put  up  about  400 
acres  of  land  and  sold  for  _;^2  7oo  currency  and  I  believe  a 
good  bargain  ;  and  bought  by  a  friend  of  mine  called  Common 
Sense — Who  I  believe  had  no  idea  of  purchasing  it  when  he 
came  there.  He  took  Jo  to  Bordentown  with  him  that  night 
and  they  came  to  look  at  it  the  next  day  ;  then  Jo  went  into 
the  Jerseys  to  find  a  countryman  named  Burges  but  was  dis- 
appointed Came  back  to  Bordentown  and  on  Saturday  looked 
all  over  Mr.  Paine's  purchase  along  with  him  and  believes  it 
bought  well  worth  money. 


APPEXDIX. 


465 


Nov.  2ist.  Mr.  Piiinc  told  us  an  anecdote  of  a  French 
noble's  applying  to  Dr.  Franklin,  as  the  Americans  had  put 
away  their  King,  and  that  nation  having  formerly  chosen  a 
King  from  Normandy,  he  offered  his  service  and  wished  him  to 
lay  his  letter  before  Congress.  Mr.  Paine  observed  that  Britain 
is  the  most  expensive  government  in  the  world.  She  gives  a 
King  a  million  a  year  and  falls  down  and  worships  him.  1  put 
on  Mr.  Paine's  hose  yesterday.  Last  night  he  brought  me  in 
my  room  a  pair  of  warm  cloth  overshoes  as  feel  very  comfort- 
able this  morning  Had  a  wooden  pot  stove  stand  betwixt  my 
feet  by  Mr.  Paine's  desire  and  found  it  kept  my  feet  warm. 

November  24.  As  soon  as  breakfast  was  over  mounted  But- 
ton [Paine's  horse]  and  set  off  for  Philadelphia.  I  brought  Mr. 
Paine  $120  in  gold  and  silver. 

Bordentown  27th,  Monday.  Day  was  devoted  to  rivetting 
the  bars,  and  punching  the  upper  bar  for  the  bannisters  [of  the 
bridge].  Mr.  Kirkbride  and  Polly  went  to  hear  a  David  Jones 
preach  a  rhodomontade  sermon  about  the  Devil,  Mary  Mag- 
dalen, and  against  deists,  etc. 

December  14.  This  day  employed  in  raising  and  putting  on 
the  abutments  again  and  fitting  them.  The  smith  made  the 
nuts  of  screws  to  go  easier.  Then  set  the  ribs  at  proper  dis- 
tance, and  after  dinner  I  and  Jackaway  [  ?  ]  put  on  some  tem- 
porary pieces  on  the  frame  of  wood  to  hold  it  straight,  and 
when  Mr.  Pain  came  they  then  tied  it  on  its  wooden  frame  with 
strong  cords.  I  then  saw  that  it  had  bulged  full  on  one  side 
and  hollow  on  the  other.  I  told  him  of  it,  and  he  said  it  was 
done  by  me — I  denied  that  and  words  rose  high.  I  at  length 
swore  by  God  that  it  was  straight  when  I  left  it,  he  replied 
as  positively  the  contrary,  and  I  think  myself  ill  used  in  this 
affair. 

Philadelphia.  Dec.  22nd.  Bridge  packed  and  tied  on  the 
sled.  We  arrived  in  town  about  5  o.clock  took  our  bags  to 
Capt.  Coltmans,  and  then  went  down  to  Dr.  Franklin's,  and 
helped  unload  the  bridge.  Mr.  Paine  called  on  me  ;  gave  us 
an  anecdote  of  Dr.  Franklin.  On  Mr.  Paine  asking  him  of 
the  value  of  any  new  European  publication  ;  he  had  not 
been  informed  of  any  of  importance.  There  were  some 
religious  posthumous  anecdotes  of  Doctor  Johnson,  of  re- 
solves vie  had  made  and  broken  though  he  had  prayed  for 

VOL.  II. — 30 


466 


APPEjVD/X. 


power  and  strength  to  keep  them  ;  which  showed  tlie  Doc- 
tor said  that  he  had  not  much  interest  there.  And  such  things 
had  better  be  suppressed  as  nobody  had  anything  to  do  betwixt 
(jod  and  man. 

December  26.  Went  with  Glentworth  to  see  the  Bridge  at 
Dr.  Franklin's.  Coming  from  thence  met  Mr.  Pain  and  Mr. 
Rittenhouse  ;  returned  with  them  and  helped  move  it  for  all 
three  to  stand  upon,  and  then  turned  it  to  examine.  Mr.  Rit- 
tenhouse has  no  doubt  of  its  strength  and  sufficiency  for  the 
Schuylkill,  but  wished  to  know  what  quantity  of  iron  [it  would 
require,]  as  he  seemed  to  think  it  too  expensive. 

December  27.  Walk  to  the  State  House.  The  Bank  bill 
called  but  postponed  until  tomorrow.  Mr.  Pain's  letter  read, 
and  leave  given  to  exhibit  the  Bridge  at  the  State  House  to  be 
viewed  by  the  members.  Left  the  House  and  met  Mr.  Pain, 
who  told  me  Donnalson  had  been  to  see  and  [stand]  upon  his 
Bridge,  and  admitted  its  strength  and  powers.  Then  took  a 
walk  beyond  Vine  street,  and  passed  by  the  shop  where  the 
steamboat  apparatus  is.  Mr.  Pain  at  our  house,  and  talking  on 
the  Bank  affair  brought  on  a  di.spute  between  Mr.  Pain  and 
the  Captain  [Coltman]  in  which  words  were  very  high.  A  re- 
flection from  Captain  C.  on  publications  in  favour  of  the  Bank 
having  lost  them  considerable,  he  [Paine]  instantly  took  that  as 
a  reflection  on  himself,  and  swore  by  G — d,  let  who  would,  it 
was  a  lie.  I  then  left  the  room  and  went  up  stairs.  They 
cjuarrelled  a  considerable  time,  but  at  length  parted  tolerably 
coolly.  Dinner  being  ready  I  went  down  ;  but  the  Captain 
continued  talking  about  politics  and  the  Bank,  and  what  he 
thought  the  misconduct  of  Mr.  Pain  in  his  being  out  and  in 
with  the  several  parties.  I  endeavoured  to  excuse  Mr.  Pain  in 
some  things  relating  thereto,  by  saying  it  was  good  sense  in 
changing  his  ground  when  any  party  was  going  wrong, — and  that 
he  seemed  to  delight  in  difficulties,  in  Mechanics  particularly, 
and  was  pleased  in  them.  The  Captain  grew  warm,  and  said 
he  knew  now  he  could  not  eat  his  dinner.  [Here  followed  a 
sharp  personal  quarrel  between  Hall  and  Coltman.]  In  the 
evening  Mr.  Paine  came  in  and  wished  me  to  be  assisting  in 
carrying  the  model  to  the  State  House.  We  went  to  Dr. 
Franklin's  and  fetched  the  Bridge  to  the  Committee  Room. 


APPES'DIX. 


467 


1787.  Jan.  I.  Our  Saint  1  have  assisted  in  moving  to  the  State 
House  and  there  placed  in  their  Committee  room,  as  by  a 
letter  addressed  to  this  Speaker  they  admitted.  And  by  the  de- 
sire of  my  patron  (who  is  not  an  early  riser)  I  attended  to  give 
any  information  to  inquiries  until  he  came.  And  then  I  was 
present  when  the  Assembly  with  their  Speaker  inspected  it  and 
many  other  persons  as  philosophers,  Mechanics  Statesmen  and 
even  Tailors.  I  observed  their  sentiments  and  opinions  of  it 
were  as  different  as  their  features.  The  philosopher  said  it 
would  add  new  light  to  the  great  utility.  And  the  tailor  (for  it 
is  an  absolute  truth)  remarked  it  cut  a  pretty  figure.  It  is  yet 
to  be  laid  (or  by  the  by  stand)  before  the  Council  of  State.  Then 
the  Philosophical  Society  and  all  the  other  Learned  Bodies  in 
this  city.  And  then  to  be  canonised  by  an  Act  of  State  which 
is  solicited  to  incorporate  a  body  of  men  to  adopt  and  realise 
or  Brobdinag  this  our  Lilliputian  handywork,  that  is  now  13  feet 
long  on  a  Scale  of  one  to  24.  And  then  will  be  added  another 
to  the  world's  present  Wonders. 

January  4.  Mr.  Pain  called  in  and  left  me  the  intended  Act 
of  Assembly  for  a  Bridge  Company,  who  are  to  subscribe 
$33,33off,  and  then  are  to  be  put  in  possession  of  the  present 
Bridge  and  premises  to  answer  the  interest  of  their  money  until 
they  erect  a  new  one  ;  and  after  they  have  erected  a  new  one, 
and  the  money  arising  from  it  amounts  to  more  than  pays 
interest,  it  is  to  become  a  fund  to  pay  off  the  principal  stock- 
holders, and  then  the  Bridge  to  become  free.  Mr.  Pain  called 
in  ;  I  gave  him  my  Bill — told  him  I  had  charged  one  day's  work 
and  a  pair  of  gloves. 

March  15th  Mr.  Paine's  boy  called  on  time  to  [inquire]  of 
the  money  spent.  Mr.  Paine  called  this  evening  ;  told  me  of 
his  being  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  about  the  chess  player,  or 
Automaton,  and  that  the  Dr.  had  no  idea  of  the  mode  of  com- 
munication. Mr.  Paine  has  had  several  visitors,  as  Mr.  Jowel, 
Rev.  Dr.  Logan,  &:c. 

Sunday  April  i6th  Prepared  to  attend  Mr.  Paine  up  to 
Bordentown.  Mr.  Paine's  horse  and  chair  came,  mounted  and 
drove  through  a  barren  sandy  country  arrived  at  Bordentown 
at  half  past  one-o'clock  for  dinner.  This  is  the  pleasantest 
situation  I  have  seen  in  this  country. 


468 


APPENDIX. 


Trf.nton,  April  20.  Sitting  in  the  house  saw  a  chair  pass 
down  the  street  with  a  red  coat  on,  and  going  out  after  it  be- 
lieved it  to  be  Mr.  Paine,  so  followed  him  up  to  CoUins's, 
where  he  was  enquiring  where  I  boarded.  I  just  then  called  to 
him,  and  went  with  him  to  Whight's  Tavern,  and  there  he  paid 
me  the  money  I  had  laid  down  for  him.  He  is  now  going  for 
England  by  way  of  France  in  the  French  packet  which  sails 
the  25th  instant.  He  asked  me  to  take  a  ride,  and  as  the  stage 
was  not  come  in  and  he  going  the  road  I  gladly  took  the 
opportunity,  as  I  could  return  on  meeting  the  stage.  On  the 
journey  he  told  me  of  the  Committee's  proceedings  on  Bridges 
and  Sewers  ;  anecdotes  of  Dr.  Franklin,  who  had  sent  a  letter 
by  him  to  the  president,  or  some  person,  to  communicate  to 
the  Society  of  Civil  Architects,  who  superintend  solely  over 
bridges  in  France.  The  model  is  packed  up  to  go  with  him. 
The  Doctor,  though  full  of  employ  from  the  Vice  President 
being  ill,  and  the  numerous  visitors  on  State  business,  and 
others  that  his  fame  justly  procures  him,  could  hardly  be 
supposed  to  pay  great  attention  to  trifles  ;  but  as  he  consideres 
Mr.  Paine  his  adopted  political  Son  he  would  endeavor  to 
write  by  him  to  his  friends,  though  Mr.  Paine  did  not  press,  for 
reasons  above.  In  2  or  3  days  he  sent  him  up  to  Bordentown 
no  less  than  a  dozen  letters  to  his  acquaintance  in  France. — 
He  told  me  many  anecdotes  of  the  Doctor,  relating  to  national 
and  political  concerns,  and  observations  of  many  aged  and 
sensible  men  of  his  acquaintance  in  that  country.  And  the 
treaty  that  he  the  Doctor  made  with  the  late  King  of  Prussia 
by  adding  an  article  that,  should  war  ever  break  out,  (though 
never  a  probability  of  it)  Commerce  should  be  left  free.  The 
Doctor  said  he  showed  it  to  the  French  minister,  Vergennes, 
who  said  it  met  his  idea,  and  was  such  as  he  would  make  even 
with  England,  though  he  knew  they  would  not, — they  were  so 
fond  of  robbing  and  plundering.  And  the  Doctor  had  gathered 
a  hint  from  a  Du  Quesney  that  no  nation  could  properly  ex- 
pect to  gain  by  endeavoring  to  suppress  his  neighbor,  for 
riches  were  to  be  gained  from  amongst  the  rich  and  not  from 
poor  neighbors  ;  and  a  National  reciprocity  was  as  much  neces- 
sary as  a  domestic  one,  or  [inter]  national  trade  as  necessary  to 
be  free  as  amongst   the   people   of   a  country.     Such  and 


APPENDIX. 


469 


many  more  hints  passed  in  riding  2  or  3  miles,  until  we  met  the 
stage.  I  then  shook  hands  and  wished  him  a  good  voyage  and 
parted. 

Letter  from  Flemmington,  N.  J.,  May  16,  1788,  to  John 
Coltman,  Leicester,  England  : 

"  Friend  John  :  Tell  that  disbelieving  sceptical  Infidel 
thy  Father  that  he  has  wounded  my  honor,  What  !  Bought 
the  Coat  at  a  rag  shop — does  he  think  I  would  palm  such  a 
falsity  both  upon  Gray  and  Green  heads  !  did  not  I  send  you 
word  it  was  General  Washington's.  And  does  he  think  I  shall 
slanderously  brook  such  a  slanderous  indignity — No  !  I  tell 
him  the  first  Ink  that  meanders  from  my  pen,  which  shall  be 
instantly  on  my  setting  foot  on  Brittains  Isle,  shall  be  to  call 
him  to  account.  I  '11  haul  out  his  Callous  Leaden  soul  with  its 
brother  ! 

"In  the  late  revolution  the  provincial  army  lying  near 
Princeton  New  Jersey  one  Sunday  General  Washington  and 
Common  Sense  each  in  their  chairs  rode  down  there  to  Meet- 
ing Common  Sense  put  up  his  at  a  friend's  one  Mrs.  Morgan's 
and  pulling  off  his  great  coat  put  it  in  the  care  of  a  servant 
man,  and  as  I  remember  he  was  of  the  pure  Irish  Extraction  ; 
he  walked  then  to  meeting  and  then  slipped  off  with  said  great 
coat  and  some  plate  of  Mr.  Morgan.  On  their  return  they 
found  what  had  been  done  in  their  absence  and  relating  it  to 
the  General  his  answer  was  it  was  necessary  to  watch  as  well  as 
pray — but  told  him  he  had  two  and  would  lend  or  give  him  one 
— and  that  is  the  Coat  I  sent  and  the  fact  as  related  to  me  and 
others  in  public  by  said  [Common  Sense.]  Nor  do  I  believe 
that  Rome  or  the  whole  Romish  Church  has  a  better  attested 
miracle  in  her  whole  Catalogue  than  the  above — though  I  dont 
wish  to  deem  it  a  miracle,  nor  do  I  believe  there  is  any  miracle 
upon  record  for  these  18  hundred  years  so  true  as  that  being 
General  Washington's  great  coat. — I,  labouring  hard  for  said 
Common  Sense  at  Bordentown,  the  said  coat  was  hung  up  to 
Iceep  snow  out  of  the  room.  I  often  told  him  T  should  expect 
that  for  my  pains,  but  he  never  would  say  I  should  ;  but  having 
a  chest  there  I  took  care  and  locked  it  up  when  I  had  finished 
my  work,  and  sent  it  to  you.  So  far  are  these  historical  facts — 
Maybe  sometime  hence  I  may  collect  dates  and  periods  to 


470 


APPEKDIX. 


ihem — But  why  should  they  be  disputed  ?  has  not  the  world 
adopted  as  true  a-many  affairs  without  date  and  of  less  moment 
than  this,  and  even  pay  what  is  called  a  holy  regard  to  them  ? 

"If  you  communicate  this  to  your  Father  and  he  feels  a 
compunction  for  the  above  crime  and  will  signify  the  same  by 
letter,  he  will  find  I  strictly  adhere  to  the  precepts  of  Chris- 
tianity and  shall  forgive. — If  not  

"  My  best  wishes  to  you  all. 

"John  Hall." 

Letter  of  Paine,  London,  Nov.  25,  1791,  to  "  Mr.  John  Hall, 
at  Mr.  John  Coltman's,  Shambles  Lane,  Leicester,  England." 

''  Mv  OLD  Friend  :  I  am  very  happy  to  see  a  letter  from 
you,  and  to  hear  that  our  Friends  on  the  other  side  the  water 
are  well.  The  Bridge  has  been  put  up,  but  being  on  woodbut- 
ments  they  yielded,  and  it  is  now  taken  down.  The  first  rib  as 
an  experiment  was  erected  between  two  steel  furnaces  which 
supported  it  firmly  ;  it  contained  not  quite  three  tons  of  iron, 
was  ninety  feet  span,  height  of  the  arch  five  feet  ;  it  was  loaded 
with  six  tons  of  iron,  which  remained  upon  it  a  twelve  month. 
At  present  I  am  engaged  on  my  political  Bridge.  I  shall  bring 
out  a  new  work  (Second  part  of  the  Rights  of  Man)  soon  after 
New  Year.  It  will  produce  something  one  way  or  other.  I  see 
the  tide  is  yet  the  wrong  way,  but  there  is  a  change  of  senti- 
ment beginning.  I  have  so  far  got  the  ear  of  John  Bull  that  he 
will  read  what  I  write — which  is  more  than  ever  was  done  be- 
fore to  the  same  extent.  Rights  of  Man  has  had  the  greatest 
run  of  anything  ever  published  in  this  country,  at  least  of  late 
years — almost  sixteen  thousand  has  gone  off — and  in  Ireland 
above  forty  thousand — besides  the  above  numbers  one  thousand 
printed  cheap  are  now  gone  to  Scotland  by  desire  from  some  of 
the  [friends]  there.  I  have  been  applied  to  from  Birmingham 
for  leave  to  print  ten  thousand  copies,  but  I  intend,  after  the 
next  work  has  had  its  run  among  those  who  will  have  handsome 
printed  books  and  fine  paper,  to  print  an  hundred  thousand 
copies  of  each  work  and  distribute  them  at  sixpence  a-piece  ; 
but  this  I  do  not  at  present  talk  of,  because  it  will  alarm  the 
wise  mad  folks  at  St.  James's.  I  have  received  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Jefferson  who  mentioned  the  great  run  it  has  had  there. 
It  has  been  attacked  by  John  Adams,  who  has  brought  an  host 


APPENDIX. 


about  his  ears  from  all  parts  of  the  Continent.  Mr.  Jefferson 
has  sent  me  twenty  five  different  answers  to  Adams  who  wrote 
under  the  signature  of  Publicola.  A  letter  is  somewhere  in  the 
city  for  me  from  Mr.  Laurens  of  S.  Carolina.  I  hope  to  re- 
ceive it  in  a  few  days.  1  shall  be  glad  at  all  times  to  see,  or 
hear  from  you.  AVrite  to  me  (under  cover)  to  Gordon,  Book- 
sellers N  :  166  Fleet  Street,  before  you  leave  Leicester.  How 
far  is  it  from  thence  to  Rotherham  ?    Yours  sincerely. 

"  P.  S.  I  have  done  you  the  compliment  of  answering  your 
favor  the  inst.  I  rec'd.  it  which  is  more  than  I  have  done  by 
any  other — were  I  to  ans.  all  the  letters  I  receive — I  should 
require  half  a  dozen  clerks." 

Extracts  from  John  Hall's  letters  from  London,  England  : 

London,  January  1792  Burke's  publication  has  produced 
one  way  or  other  near  50  different  answers  and  publications. 
Nothing  of  late  ever  has  been  so  read  as  Paine's  answer. 
Sometime  shortly  he  will  publish  a  second  part  of  the  Rights  of 
Man.  His  first  part  was  scrutinized  by  the  Privy  Council  held 
on  purpose  and  through  fear  of  making  him  tuore  popular 
deemed  too  contemptible  for  Government  notice.  The  sale  of 
it  for  a  day  or  two  was  rather  retarded  or  not  publickly  disposed 
of  until  it  was  known  by  the  printers  that  it  would  not  be 
noticed  by  Government. 

John  Hall  to  a  friend  in  England  : 

"  London,  Nov.  6,  1792.  I  dined  yesterday  with  the  Revolu- 
tion Society  at  the  London  Tavern.  A  very  large  company 
assembled  and  after  dinner  rpany  truly  noble  and  patriotic 
toasts  were  drank.  The  most  prominent  were — The  Rights  of 
Man — with  3  times  &c. — The  Revolution  of  France — The 
Revolution  of  the  World — May  all  the  armies  of  tyrants  learn 
the  Brunswick  March — May  the  tree  of  Liberty  be  planted  in 
every  tyrant  city,  and  may  it  be  an  evergreen.  The  utmost 
unanimity  prevailed  through  the  company,  and  several  very 
excellent  songs  in  favor  of  Liberty  were  sung.  Every  bosom 
felt  the  divine  glow  of  patriotism  and  love  of  universal  freedom. 
I  wish  you  had  been  there.  For  my  part  I  was  transported  at 
the  scene.  It  happened  that  a  company  of  Aristocratic  french 
and  Spanish  merchants  were  met  in  the  very  room  under,  and 


472 


APPENDIX. 


Horne  Tooke  got  up  and  sarcastically  requested  the  company 
not  to  wound  the  tender  feelings  of  the  gentlemen  by  too  much 
festivity.  This  sarcasm  was  followed  by  such  a  burst  of  ap- 
plause as  I  never  before  heard." 

From  J.  Redman,  London,  Tuesday  Dec.  i8,  5  p.  m.  to  John 
Hall,  Leicester,  England  :  "  Mr.  Paine's  trial  is  this  instant 
over.  Erskine  shone  like  the  morning-Star.  Johnson  was 
there.  The  instant  Erskine  closed  his  speech  the  venal  jury 
interrupted  the  Attorney  General,  who  was  about  to  make  a 
reply,  and  without  waiting  for  any  answer,  or  any  summing  up 
by  the  Judge,  pronounced  him  guilty.  Such  an  instance  of  in- 
fernal corruption  is  scarcely  upon  record.  I  have  not  time  to 
express  my  indignant  feelings  on  this  occasion.  At  this  mo- 
ment, while  I  write,  the  mob  is  drawing  Erskine's  carriage 
home,  he  riding  in  triumph — his  horses  led  by  another  party. 
Riots  at  Cambridge,  Manchester,  Bridport  Dorset  &c.  &c.  O 
England,  how  art  thou  fallen  !  I  am  just  now  told  that  press 
warrants  are  issued  today.  February,  make  haste.  Mrs  R's 
respects  and  mine.    Yours  truly." 

[John  Hall's  London  Journal  (1792)  records  frequent  meet- 
ings there  with  Paine.  "  March  5.  Met  Mr.  Paine  going  to 
dress  on  an  invitation  to  dine  with  the  Athenians.  He  leaves 
town  for  a  few  days  to  see  his  aunt."  "  April  20.  Mr.  Paine 
goes  out  of  town  tomorrow  to  compose  what  I  call  Burke's 
Funeral  Sermon."  "  Aug.  5.  Mr.  Paine  looking  well  and  in 
high  spirits."  "  Sept.  6.  Mr.  Paine  called  in  a  short  time. 
Does  not  seem  to  talk  much,  rather  on  a  reserve,  of  the  prospect 
of  political  affairs.  He  had  a  letter  from  G.  Washington  and 
Jefferson  by  the  ambassador  [Pinckney]."  The  majority  of 
entries  merely  mention  meeting  Paine,  whose  name,  by  the 
way,  after  the  prosecution  was  instituted.  Hall  prudently  writes 
"  P  n."    He  also  tells  the  story  of  Burke's  pension.] 

"  April  19,  1803.  Had  a  ride  to  Bordentown  to  see  Mr.  Paine 
at  Mr.  Kirkbride's.  He  was  well  and  appeared  jollyer  than  I 
had  ever  known  him.  He  is  full  of  whims  and  schemes  and 
mechanical  inventions,  and  is  to  build  a  place  or  shop  to  carry 
them  into  execution,  and  wants  my  help." 


APPENDIX  C. 


PORTRAITS  OF  PAINE. 

At  the  age  of  thirty  Paine  was  somewhat  stout, 
and  very  athletic  ;  but  after  his  arrival  in  America 
(1774)  he  was  rather  slender.  His  height  was  five 
feet,  nine  inches.  He  had  a  prominent  nose,  some- 
what like  that  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  It  may 
have  impressed  Bonaparte,  who  insisted,  it  is  said, 
that  a  marshal  must  have  a  large  nose,  Paine's 
mouth  was  delicate,  his  chin  also  ;  he  wore  no 
whiskers  or  beard  until  too  feeble  with  age  to  shave. 
His  forehead  was  lofty  and  unfurrowed  ;  his  head 
long,  the  occiput  feeble.  His  complexion  was 
ruddy, — thoroughly  English.  Charles  Lee,  during 
the  American  revolution,  described  him  as  "  the 
man  who  has  genius  in  his  eyes ;  "  Carlyle  quotes 
from  Foster  an  observation  on  the  brilliancy  of 
Paine's  eyes,  as  he  sat  in  the  French  Convention. 
His  figure,  as  given  in  an  early  French  portrait, 
is  shapely  ;  its  elegance  was  often  remarked. 
A  year  or  so  after  his  return  to  America  he  is 
shown  in  a  contemporary  picture  as  somewhat 
stout  again,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  face.  This 
was  probably  a  result  of  insufficient  exercise, 
on  which  he  much  depended.  He  was  an 
expert  horseman,  and,  in  health,  an  unwearied 

473 


474 


APPENDIX. 


walker.  He  loved  music,  and  could  join  well  in 
a  chorus. 

There  are  eleven  original  portraits  of  Thomas 
Paine,  besides  a  death-mask,  a  bust,  and  the  profile 
copied  in  this  work  from  a  seal  used  on  the  release 
at  Lewes,  elsewhere  cited  (i.,  p.  33).  That  gives 
some  idea  of  the  head  and  face  at  the  age  of 
thirty-five.  I  have  a  picture  said  to  be  that  of 
Paine  in  his  youth,  but  the  dress  is  an  anachronism. 
The  earliest  portrait  of  Paine  was  painted  by 
Charles  Willson  Peale,  in  Philadelphia,  probably 
in  some  early  year  of  the  American  Revolution, 
for  Thomas  Brand  Hollis,  of  London, — the 
benefactor  of  Harvard  University,  one  of  whose 
halls  bears  his  name.  The  same  artist  painted 
another  portrait  of  Paine,  now  badly  placed  in 
Independence  Hall.  There  must  have  been  an 
early  engraving  from  one  of  Peale's  pictures,  for 
John  Hall  writes  October  31,  1786  :  "A  print  of 
Common  Sense,  if  any  of  my  friends  want  one,, 
may  be  had  by  sending  to  the  printshops  in  Lon- 
don, but  they  have  put  a  wrong  name  to  it,  his 
being  Thomas."  '  The  Hollis  portrait  was  en- 
graved in  London,  1791,  underlined  "by  Peel 
\sic\  of  Philadelphia,"  and  published,  July  25th,  by 
J.  Ridgway,  York  Street,  St.  James's  Square. 
Paine  holds  an  open  book  bearing  the  words, 
"Rights  of  Man,"  where  Peale  probably  had 
"Common  Sense."  On  a  table  with  inkstand  and 
pens  rests  Paine's  right  elbow,  the  hand  supporting 


'  This  is  puzzling.    The  only  engraving  I  have  found  "  Tora  "  was 

published  in  London  in  iSoo.  Can  there  be  a  portrait  lost  under  some 
other  name  ? 


APPKNDfX. 


475 


his  chin.  The  full  face  appears — young,  hand- 
some, gay ;  the  wig  is  frizzed,  a  bit  of  the  queue 
visible.  In  all  of  the  original  portraits  of  Paine 
his  dress  is  neat  and  in  accordance  with  fashion, 
but  in  this  Hollis  picture  it  is  rather  fine  :  the 
loose  sleeves  are  ornamentally  corded,  and  large 
wristbands  of  white  lace  fall  on  the  cuffs. 

While  Paine  and  Jefferson  were  together  in 
Paris  (1787)  Paine  wrote  him  a  note,  August  i8th, 
in  which  he  says  :  "  The  second  part  of  your 
letter,  concerning  taking  my  picture,  I  must  feel  as 
an  honor  done  to  me,  not  as  a  favor  asked  of  me — 
but  in  this,  as  in  other  matters,  I  am  at  the  dis- 
posal of  your  friendship."  As  Jefferson  does  not 
appear  to  have  possessed  such  a  portrait,  the 
request  was  probably  made  through  him.  I  incline 
to  identify  this  portrait  with  an  extremely  inter- 
esting one,  now  in  this  country,  by  an  unknown 
artist.  It  is  one  of  twelve  symmetrical  portraits 
of  revolutionary  leaders, — the  others  being  Marat, 
Robespierre,  Lafayette,  Mirabeau,  Danton,  Brissot, 
Petion,  Camille  Desmoulins,  Billaud  de  Varennes, 
Gensonne,  Clermont  Tonnere.  These  pictures 
were  reproduced  in  cheap  woodcuts  and  distributed 
about  France  during  the  Revolution.  The  origi- 
nals were  secured  by  Col.  Lowry,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and  brought  to  Charleston  during  the  Revo- 
lution. At  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  they 
were  buried  in  leaden  cases  at  Williamstown, 
South  Carolina.  At  the  end  of  the  war  they  were 
conveyed  to  Charleston,  where  they  remained,  in 
the  possession  of  a  Mrs.  Cole,  until  purchased  by 
their  present  owner,  Mr.  Alfred  Ames  Howlett,  of 


476 


APPENDIX. 


Syracuse,  New  York.  As  Mirabeau  is  included, 
the  series  must  have  been  begun  at  an  early  phase 
of  the  revolutionary  agitation.  The  face  of  Paine 
here  strongly  resembles  that  in  Independence 
Hall.  The  picture  is  about  two  feet  high  ;  the 
whole  figure  is  given,  and  is  dressed  in  an  elegant 
statesmanlike  fashion,  with  fine  cravat  and  silk 
stockings  from  the  knee.  The  table  and  room 
indicate  official  position,  but  it  is  the  same  room  as 
in  nine  of  the  other  portraits.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  further  light  may  be  obtained  concerning 
these  portraits. 

Well-dressed  also,  but  notably  unlike  the  pre- 
ceding, is  the  "  Bonneville  Paine,"  one  of  a  cele- 
brated series  of  two  hundred  engraved  portraits, 
the  publication  of  which  in  quarto  volumes  was 
begun  in  Paris  in  1796.  "  F.  Bonneville  del.  et 
sculpsit  "  is  its  whole  history.  Paine  is  described 
in  it  as  "  Ex  Depute  a  la  Convention  Nationale," 
which  would  mean  strictly  some  time  between  his 
expulsion  from  that  assembly  in  December,  1793, 
and  his  recall  to  it  a  year  later.  It  could  not, 
however,  have  been  then  taken,  on  account  of 
Paine's  imprisonment  and  illness.  It  was  probably 
made  by  F.  Bonneville  when  Paine  had  gone  to 
reside  with  Nicolas  Bonneville  in  the  spring  of  i  797. 
It  is  an  admirable  picture  in  every  way,  but  espe- 
cially in  bringing  out  the  large  and  expressive  eyes. 
The  hair  is  here  free  and  flowing  ;  the  dress  identical 
with  that  of  the  portrait  by  Jarvis  in  this  work. 

The  best-known  picture  of  Paine  is  that  painted 
by  his  friend  George  Romney,  in  1 792.  I  have 
inquired  through  London  Notes  and  Queries  after 


APPENDIX. 


A77 


the  original,  which  long  ago  disappeared,  and  a 
claimant  turned  up  in  Birmingham,  England  ;  but 
in  this  the  hand  holds  a  book,  and  Sharp's  engrav- 
ing shows  no  hand.  The  face  was  probably  copied 
from  the  Romney,  The  large  engraving  by  W. 
Sharp  was  published  April  20,  1 793,  and  the 
smaller  in  1794.  A  reproduction  by  Illman  were  a 
fit  frontispiece  for  Cheetham  (what  satirical  things 
names  are  sometimes),  but  ought  not  to  have  got 
into  Gilbert  Vale's  popular  biography  of  Paine. 
That  and  a  reproduction  by  Wright  in  the  Men- 
dum  edition  of  Paine's  works,  have  spread  through 
this  country  something  little  better  than  a  carica- 
ture ;  and  one  Sweden  has  subjected  Truelove's 
edition,  in  England,  to  a  like  misfortune,  Paine's 
friends,  Rickman,  Constable,  and  others,  were 
satisfied  by  the  Romney  picture,  and  I  have  seen 
in  G.  J.  Holyoake's  library  a  proof  of  the  large 
engraving,  with  an  inscription  on  the  back  by 
Paine,  who  presented  it  to  Rickman.  It  is  the 
English  Paine,  in  all  his  vigor,  and  in  the  thick  of 
his  conflict  with  Burke,  but,  noble  as  it  is,  has  not 
the  gentler  and  more  poetic  expression  which  Bon- 
neville found  in  the  liberated  prisoner  surrounded 
by  affectionate  friends.  Romney  and  Sharp  were 
both  well  acquainted  with  Paine. 

A  picturesque  Paine  is  one  engraved  for  Baxter's 
"  History  of  England,"  and  published  by  Symonds, 
July  2,  1796.  Dressed  with  great  elegance,  Paine 
stands  pointing  to  a  scroll  in  his  left  hand,  inscribed 
"  Rights  of  Man."  Above  his  head,  on  a  frame 
design,  a  pen  lies  on  a  roll  marked  "  Equality." 
The  face  is  handsome  and  the  likeness  good. 


478 


APPEiVDrX. 


A  miniature  by  H.  Richards  is  known  to  me 
only  as  engraved  by  K.  Mackenzie,  and  published 
March  31,  1800,  by  G.  Gawthorne,  British  Library, 
Strand,  London.  It  is  the  only  portrait  that  has 
beneath  it  "  Tom  Paine."  It  represents  Paine  as 
rather  stout,  and  the  face  broad.  It  is  powerful, 
but  the  least  pleasing  of  the  portraits.  The  picture 
in  Vale  resembles  this  more  than  the  Romney  it 
professes  to  copy. 

I  have  in  my  possession  a  wood  engraving  of 
Paine,  which  gives  no  trace  of  its  source  or  period. 
It  is  a  vigorous  profile,  which  might  have  been 
made  in  London  during  the  excitement  over  the 
"  Rights  of  Man,"  for  popular  distribution.  It  has 
no  wig,  and  shows  the  head  extraordinarily  long, 
and  without  much  occiput.  It  is  pre-eminently 
the  English  radical  leader. 

Before  speaking  of  Jarvis'  great  portrait  of  Paine, 
I  mention  a  later  one  by  him  which  Mr.  William 
Erving,  of  New  York,  has  added  to  my  collec- 
tion. It  would  appear  to  have  been  circulated  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  The  lettering  beneath,  fol- 
lowing a  facsimile  autograph,  is:  "J.  W.  Jarvis, 
pinx.  1805.  J.  R.  Ames,  del. — L'Homme  des  Deux 
MoNDES.  Born  at  Thetford,  England,  Jan.  29, 
(O.  S.)  1737.  Died  at  Greenwich,  New  York,  June 
8,  1809."  Above  the  cheap  wood-cut  is  :  "A  trib- 
ute to  Paine."  On  the  right,  at  the  top,  is  a 
globe,  showing  the  outlines  of  the  Americas, 
France,  England,  and  Africa.  It  is  supported  by 
the  wing  of  a  dove  with  large  olive-branch.  On 
the  left  upper  corner  is  an  open  book  inscribed  : 
"  Rights  of  Man.  Common  Sense.  Crisis  "  :  sup- 


APPENDIX. 


479 


ported  by  a  scroll  with  "  Doing  justice,  loving 
MERCY.  Age  of  Reason."  From  this  book  rays 
break  out  and  illumine  the  globe  opposite.  A 
lower  corner  shows  the  balances,  and  the  liberty- 
cap  on  a  pole,  the  left  being  occupied  by  the 
United  States  flag  and  that  of  France.  Beneath 
are  the  broken  chain,  crown,  sword,  and  other 
emblems  of  oppression.  A  frame  rises  showing  a 
plumb  line,  at  the  top  of  which  the  key  of  the 
Bastille  is  crossed  by  a  pen,  on  Paine's  breast. 
The  portrait  is  surrounded  by  a  "  Freedom's 
Wreath  "  in  which  are  traceable  the  floral  emblems 
of  all  nations.  The  wreath  is  bound  with  a  fascia, 
on  which  appear,  by  twos,  the  following  names : 
"  Washington,  Monroe  ;  Jefferson,  Franklin  ;  J. 
Stewart,  E.  Palmer  ;  Barlow,  Rush  ;  M.  Wollstone- 
craft,  M.  B.  Bonneville;  Clio  Rickman,  J.  Horne 
Tooke;  Lafayette,  Brissot." 

The  portrait  of  Paine  represents  him  with  an 
unusually  full  face,  as  compared  with  earlier  pict- 
ures, and  a  most  noble  and  benevolent  expression. 
The  white  cravat  and  dress  are  elegant.  What 
has  become  of  the  original  of  this  second  picture 
by  the  elder  Jarvis  ?  It  might  easily  have  fallen 
to  some  person  who  might  not  recognize  it  as 
meant  for  Paine,  though  to  one  who  has  studied 
his  countenance  it  conveys  the  impression  of  what 
he  probably  would  have  been  at  sixty-eight.  About 
two  years  later  a  drawing  was  made  of  Paine  by 
William  Constable,  which  I  saw  at  the  house  of  his 
nephew.  Dr.  Clair  J.  Grece,  Redhill,  England.  It 
reveals  the  ravages  of  age,  but  conveys  a  vivid 
impression  of  the  man's  power. 


48o 


APPENDIX. 


After  Paine's  death  Jarvis  took  a  cast  of  his  face. 
Mr.  Laurence  Hutton  has  had  for  many  years 
this  death-mask  which  was  formerly  in  the  estab- 
Hshment  of  Fowler  and  Wells,  the  phrenologists, 
and  probably  used  by  George  Combe  in  his 
lectures.  This  mask  has  not  the  large  nose  of 
the  bust ;  but  that  is  known  to  have  been  added 
afterwards.  The  bust  is  in  the  New  York  Histori- 
cal Society's  rooms.  In  an  article  on  Paine  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  (1856)  it  was  stated  that  this 
bust  had  to  be  hidden  by  the  Historical  Society  to 
prevent  its  injury  by  haters  of  Paine.  This  has 
been  quoted  by  Mr.  Robertson,  of  London,  in  his 
"Thomas  Paine,  an  Investigation."  I  am  assured 
by  Mr.  Kelby,  of  that  Society,  that  the  statement 
is  unfounded.  The  Society  has  not  room  to  ex- 
hibit its  entire  collection,  and  the  bust  of  Paine 
was  for  some  time  out  of  sight,  but  from  no  such 
reason  as  that  stated,  still  less  from  any  prejudice. 
The  face  is  that  of  Paine  in  extreme  dilapidation, 
and  would  be  a  dismal  misrepresentation  if  shown 
in  a  public  place. 

Before  me  are  examples  of  all  the  portraits  I 
have  mentioned  (except  that  in  Birmingham),  and 
I  have  observed  contemporary  representations  of 
Paine  in  caricatures  or  in  apotheosis  of  fly-leaves. 
Comparative  studies  convince  me  that  the  truest 
portrait  of  Paine  is  that  painted  by  John  Wesley 
Jarvis  in  1803,  and  now  in  possession  of  Mr.  J.  H. 
Johnston,  of  New  York.  The  picture  from  which 
our  frontispiece  is  taken  appeared  to  be  a  replica,  of 
somewhat  later  date,  the  colors  being  fresher,  but 
an  inscription  on  the   back  says  "  Charles  W. 


APPENDIX. 


Jarvis,  pinxit,  July,  1857."  From  this  perfect  dupli- 
cate Clark  Mills  made  his  portrait-bust  of  Paine 
now  in  the  National  Museum  at  Washington,  but 
it  has  not  hitherto  been  engraved.  Alas,  that  no 
art  can  send  out  to  the  world  what  colors  only  can 
convey, — the  sensibility,  the  candor,  the  spiritu- 
ality, transfusing  the  strong  features  of  Thomas 
Paine.  As  I  have  sat  at  my  long  task,  now  drawn 
to  a  close,  the  face  there  on  the  wall  has  seemed  to 
be  alive,  now  flushed  with  hope,  now  shadowed 
with  care,  the  eyes  greeting  me  daily,  the  firm 
mouth  assigning  some  password — Truth,  Justice. 


APPENDIX  D. 


BRIEF  LIST  OF  PAINE'S  WORKS. 

Case  of  the  Officers  of  Excise.    Written  1772  ;  pub.  Lond.  1793. 

Penn'a  Magazine.     Edited  by  Paine,  Jan.  1775  —  Aug.  1776.  Articles 

enumerated  in  i.  ch.  iv.  of  this  biography. 
Penn'a  Journal.    1775,  Jan.  4,  Dialogue  bet.  Wolfe  and  Gage.    March  8, 

paper  signed  "Justice  and  Humanity."    Oct.  18,  paper  sig.  "  Huma- 

nus."    1776.    Letters  signed  "  The  Forester." 
Common  Sense,  Jan.  10,  1776.    Phil.  Lond. 
Epistle  to  the  People  called  Quakers.    Phil.  1776. 

Dialogue  between  Gen.  Montgomery  and  an  American  Delegate.  Phil. 
1776. 

The  Crisis.    13  Nos.  and  several  supernumerary.    1776 — 1783. 

Preamble  to  Pa.  Act  of  Emancipation,  March  i,  17S0. 

Public  Good.    Phil.  1780. 

Letter  to  Abbe  Raynal.    Phil.  1782. 

Thoughts  on  the  Peace.    Phil.  1783. 

Dissertation  on  Government,  the  Bank,  etc.    Phil.  1786. 

Prospects  on  the  Rubicon.    Lond.    1787.    (2d  ed.  corrected  1793.) 

Letter  to  Sir  G.  Staunton.    Iron  Bridges.    London.  1788. 

Rights  of  Man.    Lond.  1791.    Trs.  French,  1791  ;  Swedish,  1792. 

Address  of  the  "  Societe  Republicaine."    Paris,  1791. 

Letter  to  Le  Republicain.    Paris.   July  1791. 

Address  of  Friends  of  Peace  and  Liberty.    Lond.  Aug.  20,  1791. 

Rights  of  Man.    Part  ii.    Lond.  1792.    French  Tr.,  1792. 

Letter  to  Sheriff  of  Sussex,  June  30,  1792. 

Letter  to  the  Abbe  Sieyes,  1 792.    Paris  and  Lond. 

Letters  to  Henry  Dundas,  June  6  and  Sep.  15,  1792.  Lond. 

Letters  to  Lord  Onslow,  June  17  and  21,  1792.  Lond. 

Address  to  the  Addressers.    Lond.    Sep.  1792. 

Letter  to  the  People  of  France.    Paris.    Sep.  25,  1792. 

Letter  to  the  Attorney  General  of  England.    Nov.  11,  1792.  Lond. 

Speech  in  French  Convention  on  bringing  Louis  Capet  to  Trial,  Nov.  20, 

1792.    Paris.    French  ;  printed  by  order  of  the  Convention. 
Reasons  for  preserving  the  life  of  Louis  Capet.    Jan.  1793. 
Project  of  a  Constitution.    Reported  1793.    (Pub.  in  works  of  Condorcet.) 
Le  Siecle  de  la  Raison  (essay  suppressed  by  translator).    Paris.  1793. 
Letter  to  Danton,  1793.    Durand's  Documents.    New  York.  1889. 
Age  of  Reason.    Part  i.    Paris,  New  York,  and  London,  1794. 
VOL.  II.— 31  482 


APPENDIX. 


483 


Letter  to  French  Convention  (from  prison)  Aug.  8,  1794. 
Memoire  A  M.  Monroe,  Sep.  1794.  Paris. 

Dissertation  on  the  first  principles  of  Government.    Paris.  1795. 
Speech  in  Convention  on  the  proposed  Constitution.  1795. 
Age  of  Reason.    Part  ii.    Paris  and  Lond.  1796. 

Decline  and  Fall  of  the  English  System  of  Finance.    (Pub.  in  all  European 

languages.)  1796. 
Letter  to  George  Washington.    Phil.  1796. 

Agrarian  Justice  (A  la  Legislature  et  au  Directoire,  ou  la  Justice  Agraire.) 
1797- 

Letter  to  Erskine.    Lond.  1797. 

Letter  to  People  and  Armies  of  France.    Paris.  1797. 

Discourse  to  the  Theophilanthropists.    Paris  and  Lond.  1797. 

Letter  to  Camille  Jourdan,  on  Bells,  etc.    (Lettre  de  Thomas  Payne  sur 

les  Cultes).  1797. 
Maritime  Compact.    The  Rights  of  Neutrals  at  Sea.  1801. 
Letter  to  Samuel  Adams.  1802. 

Letters  to  the  Citizens  of  the  United  States  written  1802.    Ed.  Lond. 
1S17. 

Letter  to  the  People  of  England.  1804. 

To  the  French  Inhabitants  of  Louisiana.  1804. 

To  the  Citizens  of  Pennsylvania  (on  Convention).    Phil.  1805. 

On  the  Cause  of  the  Yellow  Fever.    New  York.  1805. 

On  Constitutions,  Governments,  and  Charters.    New  York  1805. 

Contributions  pub.  in  The  Prospect,  N.  Y.  1804-5. 

Letter  to  Andrew  A.  Dean.    New  York,  1806. 

Observations  on  Gunboats,  etc.  1806. 

On  the  Polit.  and  Military  Affairs  of  Europe,  1806. 

To  the  People  of  New  York.    (Fortifications.)  1807. 

On  Governor  Lewis's  Speech.  1807. 

On  Mr.  Hale's  Resolutions.  1807. 

Three  Letters  to  Morgan  Lewis.  1807. 

On  the  question,  Will  there  be  War?  1807. 

Essay  on  Dream.    Examination  of  the  Prophecies.    New  York,  1807. 
Reply  to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff.    New  York.  1810. 
Origin  of  Freemasonry.    New  York.  1811. 

Miscellaneous  Poems.    By  Thomas  Paine.    London:  R.  Carlile.   18 19. 


Paine's  principal  works  have  been  translated  into 
French  and  German,  and  some  of  them  into  other 


INDEX. 


A 

Adams,  Henry,  i.  212  ;  ii.  360. 
Adams,  Jno.,  i.  6g,  79,  92,  269,  290, 

295,  304,  320  ;  ii.  179,  203,  272, 

279.  285,  310. 
Adams,  J.  Q.,  i.  292,  320,  334,  374. 
Adams,  Samuel,  ii.  224,  285,  314. 
Age  of  Reason,  bk.,  ii.  97,  100, 

no,  116,  129,  135,  181-222,  261, 

300.  314,  331,  374,  390,  415,  420. 
Agrarian  Justice,  bk. ,  ii.  257. 
Ainslie,  Rev.  R.,  ii.  427. 
Aitkin,  R.,  i.  40. 
Allen,  Ethan,  ii.  192. 
Amar,  ii.  93,  104. 

Americans  in  Paris,  ii.  83,  87,  92, 

108,  113,  126,  284. 
Antoinette,  Marie,  i.  121,  187,  268, 

289. 

Asgill,  Capt.,  i.  187,  192. 
Audibert,  Achille,  i.  350  ;  ii.105,  139. 

B 

Bache,  B.  F.,  ii.  174,  442. 

Badeau,  Albert,  ii.  394,  427. 

Banks,  Sir  J.,  i.  230,  264. 

Barlow,  Joel,  i.  27,  63,  241,  321, 
350  ;  ii.  66,  97,  106,  109,  126,  233, 
236,  239,  284,  289,  381,  395,  458. 

Barrere,  i.  357  ;  ii.  20,  57,  131,  138, 
148. 

Barruel-Beauvert,  ii.  432. 
Bastille,  key,  i.  269,  272,  314. 
Bayeaux,  Mrs.,  ii.  342,  358,  394. 
Beaumarchais,  i.  118,  139. 
Bell,  R.,  pub.,  i.  68,  180. 
Benoit,  gaoler,  ii.  107,  134. 
Bentabole,  ii.  95,  150. 
Billaud-Varennes,  ii.  114,  139,  148, 
475- 


Blake,  Wm.,  i.  351. 

Blanc,  Louis,  hist.,  i.  364  ;  ii.  5,  9, 

II.  36.  38,  78,  89,  238. 
Blomefield,  hist.,  i.  5. 
Blount,  Ch.,  deist,  ii.  192. 
Bonaparte,  ii.  275,  280,  283,  287, 

292  ;  Paine  on,  295,  333,  403,  473. 
Bonnevilles,  The,  i.,  xii.,  309,  311  ; 

ii-  57,  233,  278,  283,  287,  300, 

335.  340.  352,  359.  392,  399.  403, 

408. 

Bordentown,  N.  J.,  i.  112,  198,  205. 

249,  265  ;  ii.  207,  318,  371,  461. 
Bosville,  Col.,  ii.  17,  60,  309. 
Bourdon  de  I'Oise,  ii.  95. 
Bradlaugh,  Chas.,  i.  368  ;  ii.  412. 
Brissot,  i.  282,  310,  357  ;  ii.  3,  11, 

36,  49,  58,  93,  475. 
Brown,  Senator,  Ky.,  ii.  156. 
Burgoyne,  Gen.,  i.  95  seq. 
Burke,  Edmund,  i.  230,  249,  278 

seq.,  288,  324,  329,  341,  368;  ii. 

26,  32,  35,  62,  198,  208,  291,  472. 
Burr,  Aaron,  ii.  284,  394. 
Butler,  Bp.,  Analogy,  ii.  249,  263. 

C 

Calais,  i.  350. 
Cambaceres,  ii.  155. 
Capital  Punishment,  i.  306  ;  ii.  4,  15. 
Carlile,  Richard,  i.  330,  346  ;  ii. 
237,  424. 

Carlyle,  T.,  i.  276,  283,  348,  360, 

366  ;  ii.  6,  191,  196. 
Cartwright,  Maj.,  i.  53. 
Carver,  Wm.,  ii.  341,  354,  362,  364, 

386,  390,  399. 
Cato(Rev.  Dr.  Smith),  i.  68. 
Chalmers,  G.  ("  Oldys  "),  biog.,  i. 

pref.,  xvi.,  4,  19,  323,  330,  335, 

338  ;  ii.  237. 


485 


486 


INDEX. 


Chapman,  pub.,  i.  330,  335. 
Chaptal,  Minister,  ii.  296,  450. 
Chauvelin,  ii.  34,  36. 
Cheetham,  Jas.,  i.  pref.,  xvi.,  87; 

ii.  352,  384,  399,  418,  455,  459. 
Chenier,  ii.  153. 

Choppin,  Wm.,  i.  321  ;  ii.  50,  66,  98. 
Christie,  Thos.,  i.  307,  321,  350; 

ii.  23,  66. 
Clinton,  Geo.,  ii.  340,  379,  380,  405. 
Clootz,  Anacharsis,  i.  349  ;  ii.  58, 

104,  129,  131,  153,  218. 
Clubs,  French,  Republican,  i.  308  ; 

Jacobin,  312,  321  ;  ii.  5,  51,  114, 

158  ;  Cordeliers,  47,  no. 
Clymer,  Geo.,  i.  43,  221,  228. 
Cobbett,  Wm.,  i.  58  ;  ii.  62,  175, 

238,  336,  423,  427,  429. 
Cocke  Family,  i.  i,  11, 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  ii.  24,  62. 
Collot  d'Herbois,  ii.  139,  148. 
Commissioners,  English,  i.  115,  i8g. 
Common  Sense,  bk.,  i.  61,  86,  205, 

224,  227,  276,  281,  304,  346  ;  ii. 

203,  374.  435,  453-  ' 
Condorcet,  1.  290,  310,  357  ;  ii.  13, 

15,  36,  38,  44,  47.  5S. 
Constable,  D.  &  W.,  ii.  388. 
Constitution,  Eng.,  i.  73  ;  ii.  37. 
Constitutions,  American,  i.  151,  290, 

293,  348  ;  ii.  354,  356. 
Constitutions,  French,  i.  289,  311, 

332,  362  ;  ii.  37,  39,  43,  158,  167. 
Cooper,  Jas.,  ii.  108,  277. 
Cornwallis,  i.  172,  175  ;  ii.  444. 
Couthon,  ii.  38,  42,  100,  200,  208. 
Crisis,  bk.,  i.  83,  86,  90,  100,  153, 

157,  161,  183,  192,  196,  202  ;  ii. 

374,  436. 
Crocker,  Capt.,  ii.  283. 

D 

Danton,  i.  229,  283,  356,  362,  377; 

ii.  3,  II,  79,  129. 
Dawson,  J.,  ii.  296. 
Deane,  Silas,  i.  73,  89,  119,  141, 

175,  2X0,  270  ;  ii.  436. 
De  Brienne,  Cardinal,  i.  229,  286. 
Deforgues,  ii.  89,  116,  128. 
Desmoulins,  C,  i.  475  ;  ii.  79,  129. 
De  Ternant,  ii.  86. 
Dickinson,  John,  i.  208. 
Directory,  ii.  165,  272,  276. 
Doniol,  hist.,  i.  118,  142. 
Duchatelet,^  Achille,  i.  310. 
Dumont,  Etienne,  i.  310,  314. 
Dumouriez,ii.23, 35,  36, 46,  51,56,57. 


Dundas,  H.,  i.  340,  344,  352,  366  ; 
ii.  272. 

E 

Egle,  Dr.,  State  Lib.  Pa.,  i.  157, 
167. 

England,  Terror  in,  ii.  27,  31,  237. 
Erskine,  i.  280,  373;  ii.  12,  33,  124, 

260,  268,  472. 
Evelyn,  i.  5. 

Excise,  i.  16  seq.  ;   ii.  395. 
F 

Fauchet,  Abbe,  i.  357  ;  ii.  38. 
Fellows,  Col.  Jno.,  ii.  340,  352,  354, 

359.  362,  364,  398,  423. 
Fiske,  J.,  i.  82,  gg. 
Fitch,  J.,  ii.  280,  462. 
Fitzgerald,  Lord,  i.  358. 
Foreign  Affairs  Com.,  i.  8g,  g2. 
Forester,  The  (Paine),  i.  6g. 
Foster,  Jno.,  ii.  341,  362,  364,  400. 
Fox,  C.  J.,  i.  288,  375  ;  ii.  12,  33, 

62,  275. 
Fox,  George,  ii.  201. 
France,  i.  I13,  117,  124,  130,  171  ; 

revolution,  234,  25g,  285,  305. 
Francis,  Dr.,  ii.  331,  358,  415,  427. 
Frank,  editor,  386. 
Franklin,  Dr.,  i.  36,  40,  56,  67,  68, 

7g,  8g,  115,  140,  146,  151,  167, 

171,  213,  226,  2go,  348  ;  ii.  343, 

461. 

Freemasonry,  ii.  359,  364. 

G 

Gage,  Gen.,  i.  57 

Gallatin,  Albert,  ii.  339,  360,  415, 
453- 

Gardiner,  A.  B.,  i.  gg. 
Garrison,  W.  L.,  Sr.,  i.  52. 
Gates,  Gen.,  i.  gg  ;  ii.  458. 
Genet,  i.  378  ;  ii.  82,  go,  94,  in, 

126,  172. 
Gensonne,  ii.  38,  475. 
George  IIL,  i.  63,  183,  242,  257, 

279,  2S8,  319,  342,  358  ;  ii.  61, 

152,  274,  303. 
Gerard,  de  Rayneval,  i.  77,  114,  127, 

130,  134,  137,  139.  .150. 
Girondins  (or  Brissotins),  ii.  38,  4g, 

58,  70,  75,  93-- 
Godwin,  Wm.,  i.  284. 
Gower,  Lord,  i.  375,  377  ;  ii.  19,  24, 

86. 


INDEX. 


487 


Grece,  Dr.,  C.  J.,  ii.  66,  388,  479. 
Greene,  Christopher,  Col.,  i.  99. 
Greene,  Gen.,  Nath'l,  i.  82,  99,  168  ; 
ii.  436- 

Gregoire,  Abbe,  i.  356  ;  ii.  449. 
Grellet,  Steph.,  ii.  420. 
Grenville,  Lord,  i.  368  ;  ii.  19. 
Grimstone,  Capt.,  ii.  19. 
Gunpowder-motor,  i.  240. 

H 

Hall,  Jno.,  i.  218  ;  ii.  62,  207,  460. 
Hamilton,  Alex.,  i.  349  ;  ii.  384, 
412. 

Henry,  J.  Jos.,  i.  153  ;  ii.  193. 
Henry,  Patrick,  i.  206  ;  ii.  252. 
Henry.  Wm.,  i.  loi  ;  ii.  280,  462. 
Herault  Sechelles,  i.  353,  357  ;  ii. 

42,  60,  128,  209,  438. 
Hertell,  Judge,  ii.  364,  398,  426. 
Hicks,  Elias,  ii.  409. 
Hicks,  Willett,  ii.  409,  417. 
Holcroft,  i.  284. 

Hollis,  T.  Brand,  i.  284  ;  ii.  474. 
Howe,  Gen.,  i.  89,  100. 
Howe,  Lord,  i.,  79,  87. 
Humanity,  Religion  of,  ii.  208,  281. 

I 

Independence,  Am.,  i.  47,  53,  56, 
60,  65,  78,  91,  169,  192,  231,  245, 
268. 

Indians,  i.  88  ;  ii.  462. 

Inventions,  i.  102,  213,  214,  218,  226, 

240,  241  ;  ii.  456,  461. 
Iron  Bridge,  i.  21S,  226,  228,  242, 

253,  258,  275,  276,  301  ;  ii.  207, 

289,  296,  318,  456. 

J 

Jackson,  Major,  ii.  108,  114. 
Jarvis,  J.  W.,  ii.  375,  397,402,  414, 

421,  454,  480;  C.  W.,  481. 
Jay,  John,  i.  132  ;  ii.  225. 
Jefferson,  i.  71,  80,  235;  and  Paine, 

252  seq.^  274,  291,  299,  320,  336  ; 

ii.  87,   114,  119,   125,  240,  279, 

296,  309,  315,  321,  344,  349,  352, 

358,  371. 
Johnson,  phys.,  i.  351  ;  ii.  48,  98. 
Johnson,  pub.,  i.  284,  296,  336. 
Jordan,    pub.,    i.    284,    330,  335, 

342. 

Jourdan,  C,  ii.  258,  279,  444. 
Junius,  i.  37,  49. 


K 

Kentucky,  ii.  92,  93,  156. 
Kenyon,  Lord,  i.  371  ;  ii.  265. 
l^iug>  John,  i.  379. 
Kirkbride,  Col.,  i.  no,  198,  267  ;  ii. 

318.  325.  336,  461.  _ 
Knowler,  Rev.  Wm.,  i.  13. 
Kyd,  S.,  261. 

L 

Lafayette  and  wife,  i.  126,  252,  256, 
268,  274,  283,  289,  305,  306,  310, 
336  ;  ii.  151,  223,  441,  475. 

La  Luzerne,  De,  i.  77,  140. 

Lamartine,  i.  364  ;  ii.  5,  19. 

Lambert,  Mary,  i.  15,  351. 

Lander,  W.  S.,  ii.  20,  294. 

Lanjuinais,  ii,  38. 

Lansdowne,  Lord,  i.  255,  262. 

Lanthenas,  i.  305,  313,  347,  349, 
357;  ii.  38,  40,  58,  100,  135, 
210. 

Larevelliere-Lepeaux,  ii.  277,  293. 
Lauderdale,  Lord,  ii.  63. 
Laurens,  Henry,  i.  102,  126,  147  ; 
ii.  471. 

Laurens,  Col.  John,  i.  16S,  173  ;  ii. 

405.  436. 
Lebon,  Jos.,  ii.  131. 
Lebrun,  ii.  89,  91,  iii,  292. 
Lee,  Arthur,  i.  89,  \\(^seq.,  138,  148, 

208. 

Lee,  Chas. ,  i.  84. 

Lee,  R.  H.,  i.  71,  79,  95,  205,  207. 
Lesley,  Prof.  Peter,  i.  244. 
Lewes,  i.  20,  345  ;  ii.  364,  393. 
Littlepage,  Lewis,  i.  256  ;  ii.  22. 
Livingston,  Rob't  R.,  i.  63,  79,  182, 

195  ;  ii.  296,  309,  446. 
Louis  XVI.,  i.  120,  171,  306,  309, 

320,  358,  363,  378  ;  ii.  I,  6,  II, 

40,  164. 

Louisiana,  ii.  312,  319,  331,  339,  347. 
Luxembourg  Prison,  ii.  96,  113,  128, 
132,  164. 

M 

Macdonald,  Atty.-Gen.,  i.  340,  367, 

374  ;  ii-  438,  472. 
Madison,  Jas.,  i.  205,  211,  291,  295, 

349  ;  ii-  174.  344,  371,  382. 
Magazine,  Penn'a.,  i.  41,  47,  82  ;  ii. 

435- 

Maillane,  Durand,  ii.  37,  39. 
Malmsbury,  Lord,  ii.  272. 


488 


INDEX. 


Marat,  i.  306,  359,  475  ;  ii.  6,  10,  39, 

42,  46,  60. 
Maritime    Compact,    bk.,    ii.  284, 

287,  296. 
Mason,  Rev.  J.  M.,  ii.  36f2,  413. 
Masson,  F.,  hist.,  ii.  13,  47,  91,  141. 
Milbanke,  R.,  ii.  289. 
Miles,  W.  A.,  i.  375  ;  ii.  17. 
Millington,  F.  H.,  i.  8. 
Mirabeau,  i.,  305,  310,  314,  475. 
Miranda,  Gen.,  ii.  22,  57. 
Monroe,  Jas.  and  Mrs.,  ii.  24,  80, 

115,  139,  141,  147,  154,  166,  223, 

233,  238,  270,  441. 
Moore,  Dr.  John,  i.  365  ;  ii.  64. 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  i.  139,  175,  195, 

269,  287,  300,  302,  312,  336,  361, 

369.  377  ;  ii-  II,  13.  35-  59-  80, 

III,  122,  139,  141,  148,  172,  270, 

309,  349,  374,  382. 
Morris,   Lewis,  Gen.,  i.  218,  265, 

272,  302  ;  ii.  52,  87,  462. 
Morris,  Robert,  i.  124,  157,  175, 

181,  184,  195,  ig8  ;  ii.  405. 
Muhlenberg,  F.  A.,  i.  43  ;  ii.  382. 
Munro,  G.,  i.  375  ;  ii.  19. 

N 

New  Rochelle,  i.  203  ;  ii.  52,  341, 

355,  356,  394,  396. 
Nicholsons,  The,  i.  212,  246,  251  ; 

ii.  360,  415. 
North  Carolina,  i.  55,  57,  78. 

O 

O'Hara,  Gen.,  ii.  I2g. 

Onslow,  Lord,  i.  345. 

Oswald,  Col.  John,  i.  321,  350;  ii. 

85.  97,  152. 
Otto,  Louis,  ii.  88,  91. 

P 

Paine  Family,  i.  i  ;  Eliz'th,  sister  of 
Thos.,  5  ;  Eliz'th,  wife  of  Thos., 
26,  32,  35  ;  Frances,  mother  of 
Thos.,  3,  34,  222,  230,  233,  275, 
276,  ii.  437  ;  Joseph,  father  of 
Thos.,  i.  2,  12,  222,  230,  233,  ii. 
202,  434,  437-, 

Paine,  Thomas,  i.  pref.,  v.  seq.;  early- 
life,  3  seq.;  struggles,  l^seq.;  emi- 
gration, 40  seq.  ;  military  career, 
82  seq.;  controversies,  68,  76,  146, 
193,  215  ;  visits  France,  167,  223, 
436  ;  Europe,  227  seq. ;  Rights 


of  Man,  bk. ,  284  seq.;  France,  306  ; 
England,  246  seq.;  prosecution, 
340  ;  Fr.  Convention,  347  ;  effigy, 
370  ;  and  Louis  XVI.,  ii.  3  ; 
Parl't,  12  ;  outlawry,  17  ;  resi- 
dence, 61  ;  arrest,  103  ;  libera- 
tion, 149  ;  Convention,  153,  162  ; 
Yorke's  visit,  300  ;  in  America, 
308,  326  ;  death,  416  ;  monument, 
427  ;  portraits,  472  ;  works,  482. 

Palmer,  Elihu,  ii.  233,  298,  352, 
362,  371,  402,  409. 

Peale,  Chs.  \V.,  ii.  456,  474. 

Perry,  Sampson,  i.  321  ;  ii.  36. 

Petion,  ii.  38,  310,  475. 

Phillips,  Sir  R.,  ii.  27,  280. 

Pichon,  Baron,  ii.  223,  351. 

Pickering,  T.,  ii.  173,  382. 

Pinckney,  C.  C,  i.  351  ;  ii.  98,  143, 
156. 

Pindar,  Peter,  i.  238  ;  ii.  269. 

Pintard,  John,  ii.  331. 

Pitt,  the  Younger,  i.  234,  255,  288, 

330,  340  ;  ii.  II,  22,  30,  34,  77, 

155,  291. 
Pompadour,  Madame,  ii.  64. 
Poole,  S.  L.,  i.  370  ;  ii.  24. 
Portraits,  Paine's,  ii.  228,  347,  472. 
Price,  Dr.  Richard,  i.  279,  324  ;  ii. 

228. 

Priestley,  Dr.  J.,  i.  279,  321,  324, 

349  ;  ii.  228,  299. 
Prospect,  The,  ii.  365. 
Public  Good,  pamph.,  i.  163,  208. 

Q 

Quakerism,  i.  i,  3,  8,  10  seq.,  20, 
31,  44,  55,  70,  76,  82,  180,  231, 
239,  308,  328,  362  ;  ii.  199,  215, 
241,  259,  420. 

R 

Randolph,  Edmund,  i.  63,  164,  292, 
297,  299;  ii.  86,  119,  125,  148, 

151,  177,  383- 
Raynal,  Abbe,  i.  180,  188. 
Rickman,  T.  C,  i.  pref.,  v.,  xiv., 

25,  36,  146,  321,  372  ;  ii.  28,  30, 

59,  64,  67,  279,  294,  305. 
Rights,  Declaration  of,  i.  289,  319  ; 

ii.  39,  163. 
Rights  of  Man,  bk.,  i.  pref.,  ix., 

284,   300,   314,    329,    342,  346, 

354  ;  ii.  27,  208,  269,  276,  331, 

470. 

Riker,  Richard,  ii.  380,  383. 


INDEX. 


489 


Rittenhouse,  I).,  i.  43,  94  ;  ii.  4^'!. 
466. 

Robertson,  J.  M.,  i.,  pref.,  viil.;  ii. 
353,  480. 

Robespierre,  i.  306,  321,  376,  475  ; 
ii.  15,  38,  41,  48,  58,  70,  78,  89, 
100,  III,  127,  132,  200,  208,  400. 

Robinet,  hist.,  i.  229,  305. 

Rocquain,  F.,  hist.,  i.  272  ;  ii.  191. 

Roland,  ii.  38  ;  Madame,  66,  443. 

Romaine,  Dr.  N.,  ii.  331,  416,  453. 

Romney,  George,  i.  321  ;  ii.  476. 

Rotherham,  Paine  at,  i.  244. 

Rousseau,  i.  290,  347  ;  ii.  212,  256. 

Rumsey,  Jas.,  i.  256  ;  ii.  280. 

Rush,  Dr.  B.,  i.  41,  51  ;  ii.  318, 

343.  419. 

S 

St.  Denis,  Faubourg,  ii.  64,  68. 
Sampson,  Counsellor,  ii.  401. 
Shelley,  i.  21  ;  ii.  61,  425. 
Short,  Wm.,  i.  312,  322. 
Siey^s,  Abbe,  i.  312,  328,  357,  362  ; 

ii.  6,  159,  283. 
Skipworth,  Consul,  ii  289,  291,  335. 
Slavery,  African,  i.  41,  52,  60,  80, 

154,  271,  323;  ii.  203,  300,  339, 

344,  350,  408,  418. 

Smith,  Sir  R.  and  Lady,  ii  76,  99, 
134,  233  239,  239,  289,  304,  306, 
310,444. 

Societies,  polit.  inq..  i.  225  ;  con- 
stitutional, 287  ;  friends  of  lib., 
350 ;  the  revolution,  324  ;  ii. 
Repub  Greens  329,  Tammany, 
331. 

South  Carolina,  i  78. 

Southey,  ii  24,  62 

Sparks,  hist  ,  i    pref.,  vi.,  348  ;  ii. 

125,  152 
Stanhope,  Lady  Hester,  ii.  12. 
Steamboat,  i    102  ,    ii.   280,  408, 

462. 

Stephen,  Leslie,  i.  pref.  viii.;  ii 
194. 

Stille,  C.  J.,  i.  118,  120,  143,  153. 
T 

Tabor,  Judge,  ii.  398. 

Taine,  i.  377  ;  ii.  5. 

Talleyrand,  i.  377  ;  ii.  34,  35,  442. 

Theophilanthropy,  ii.  241,  255,  267, 

293,  369,  426. 
Thetford,  i.  5,  230  ;  ii.  199. 
Thibaudeau,  ii.  152,  224. 


Thorburn,  Grant,  ii.  362,  403. 

i'huriot,  ii.  9,  139. 
Tooke,  J.  Home,  i.  315,  321,  336, 

345,  350  ;  ii.  472. 
Trenton,  ii.  327,  468. 
Trevelyan,  Sir  G.,  ii.  61,  189. 
Truelove,  E.,  i.  pref.,  vi. 
Trumbull,  John,  i.  245,  266. 
Tyler,  Royall,  i.  237  ;  ii.  269. 

U 

Union,  American,  i.  183,  195,  202, 
224. 

Unitarians,  English,  ii.  231. 

V 

Vadier,  ii.  104,  109,  114. 
Vale,  Gilbert,  biog.,  i.  xiv. 
Vanhuile,  Jos.,  ii.  131,  278,  283. 
Vergennes,  Count,  i.  iig,  142,  171, 

187,  290. 
Vergniaud,  i.  357  ;  ii.  6,  38. 
Voltaire,  i.  290;  ii.  212,  414,  457. 

W 

Wakefield,  Gilbert,  ii.  227. 
Wakeman,  T.  B.,  ii.  206. 
Ward,  Elisha,  ii.  375,  383,  405. 
Washington,  George,  i.  56,  59,  6r, 

83,  98,  156.  172,  178,  182,  197, 

199,  261,  300,  302,  349,  354  ;  ii. 

15,  114,  119,  167,  175,  256,  382, 

461,  469. 

Watson,  Richard,  Bp.  LlandafT,  ii. 

184,  232,  243,  251,  257,  262,  290, 

300,  367,  378. 
Welling,  Dr.,  i.  58. 
Wentworth,  Paul,  i.  77,  137,  144. 
Wesley,  John,  ii.  194,  211,  213. 
West,  Benj.,  P.R.A.,  i.  245. 
Whiteside,  Peter,  i.  251,   276  ;  ii. 

108,  143,  440. 
Whitman,  Walt,  ii.  422. 
Wilkes,  John,  i.  37,  122  ;  ii.  62. 
Williams,  T.,  trial,  ii.  260. 
Wollstonecraft,  Mary,  ii.  66,  479. 

Y 

York,  Pa.,  i.  94,  100,  iii. 
Yorke,  H.  Redhead,  ii.  300. 

Z 

Zoroastriaii  religion,  ii.  31 S. 


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